A Dragon's Heart
by DreamonAlina
Summary: Sophie Kingston is a dragonologist at the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary. One day, Newt Scamander shows up and Sophie is immediately smitten. The only problem? She's already engaged. But Sophie has bigger problems. A mysterious illness is sweeping across Sophie's town, and it may be up to Sophie and Newt to find out what-before it's too late. Newt/OC.
1. Sophie

**Disclaimer:** I do not own "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" in any way, shape, or form! I only own my OC, "Sophia Millicent Kingston" and the plot of this story!

 **Summary:** Sophie Kingston is a dragonologist at the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary. One day, Newt Scamander shows up and Sophie is immediately smitten. The only problem? She's already engaged. But Sophie has bigger problems. A mysterious illness is sweeping across Sophie's town, and it may be up to Sophie and Newt to find out what-before it's too late.

 **Author's Note:** Welcome, welcome! Some of you may recognize the characters of Newt and Sophie, and that's because I had of fic of them up at the beginning of this year but then decided to do something else with them! For those of you who read the original fic, then you knew that Sophie and Newt were married by the time they got to New York. Well, this story depicts what happened with them and how they got married! I hope you enjoy it! I have 25 chapters planned for this story, so let's hope it takes off!

 **Enjoy!**

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 _Felix has been displaying strange behaviour_ , she wrote down, her eyebrows knitted together as she thought of what could possibly be going on. _We had recently switched his diet from cattle to pigs, so it might be the change in his diet that is causing the strange behaviour. I have spoken with Vasile, and he suggested switching back to Felix's normal diet-_

Sophie Kingston set the pen down and flexed her cramping fingers. She had been writing and writing for hours, her recent examination of Felix the Chinese Fireball still fresh in her mind. She took a sip of the coffee that the Muggles were so fond of. Sophie hadn't understood the attraction-until she had some herself. Now she could barely wake up in the morning without a sip of coffee.

Sophie worked at the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary in Romania, and she was among the many who stayed long after hours working into the night. All the dragonologists at the Sanctuary were dedicated to the creatures that they worked with, and Sophie oftentimes put them before herself. She ran a hand through her chopped blonde hair, the tips barely touching her shoulders. Sophie knew that the trend of the times was a short bob, but she didn't think it suited her. Her hairstyle suited her much better, and it was a compromise between the two.

She had always loved magical creatures, and dragons especially so, having been obsessed with the creatures since she was a Ravenclaw schoolgirl at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy. When she had her first lesson in the Care of Magical Creatures, Sophie knew that this was what she was going to spend her life doing.

Her mother, Thea, insisted that the job was too dangerous, but her father, Matthew, told her to follow her heart and do what she loved. Then again, her mother was a witch, and her father was a Muggle, so he didn't truly recognize or understand the danger of working with dragons.

She moved from England to Romania fresh out of Hogwarts. Her Care of Magical Creatures professor had seen her potential and got her an internship at the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary. She kissed her mum, dad, and her two sisters Astra and Penelope goodbye and left for Romania at the ripe age of seventeen. For ten long years she studied as hard as she could, and eventually began moving up the ranks. By the time she was twenty-seven, she was the Chief Caregiver to the Chinese Fireballs, her favourite being Felix (she took one look at Felix when he was born and decided that he looked like a Felix).

However, during the Great War, she took a break from her studies and enlisted as a war nurse. As much as she was a witch, she was also half-Muggle, and she felt like she owed it to her Muggle heritage to help in this war as much as she could.

But it was during the War that she lost her father. The death of Matthew hit her and her family hard, but they managed to work through it.

Mostly.

Some days the grief would hit Sophie so hard she felt like she needed to lie down. Even though almost eight years had passed since her father died in the second year of the war, the wounds were still as fresh as if it had happened yesterday. She would excuse herself and have a good cry. All in private, of course. As the oldest child in her family, she had believed that it was her responsibility to be strong and take care of the family.

Her mother agreed with this, but unfortunately, had taken it farther than Sophie could've imagined.

Almost automatically, Sophie looked at the ring that sat very pointedly on her forth finger on her left hand. The ring itself didn't weigh much, but to Sophie, it felt like an overwhelming weight bringing her whole spirit down.

Sophie clenched her hand into a fist and the ring stuck out more. She relaxed her hand, and the ring shrank back down. She did that for a minute or so, but she didn't know why. Maybe she was hoping that the ring would disappear. Maybe she was hoping that it would pop off her finger. Maybe...

She yanked it off her finger and tossed it into the drawers of the desk, just like she always did. She grinned and beared it when she was surrounded by her friends and family, but her office was her sanctuary. Here, she could be Sophie Kingston, not the future Mrs. John Williams.

She looked up when she heard a knock at the door and called out, "Come in!" in Romanian (after spending ten years in a country, Sophie knew that she couldn't get by without knowing the language).

The door opened, and Cristina, one of the receptionists, poked her head through the door. "Miss Kingston?" she started in heavily accented English. "There is man here to see you. I told him I see if you busy first."

Sophie knew that the man who was with Cristina spoke English, because Cristina wouldn't be speaking English otherwise. Sophie responded in Romanian, "I'm free. Send him in."

Cristina opened the door more and in walked the most breathtakingly gorgeous man that she had ever seen. He wasn't cute in an obvious way; his blue overcoat looked like it had seen war (and it might very well have-the war had ended not too long ago, and people were still recovering), his hair was such a light brown that it almost looked blond, and they were a mess of curls on top of his head, and his green eyes never quite met Sophie's as he came to a stop in front of her.

For some reason, Sophie felt like she recognized him. She stared at him for a good thirty seconds before she realized how awkward that must be, and tore her gaze away from him long enough to look over at Cristina. "That will be all, Cristina, thank you," she told her in Romanian, and Cristina nodded her head before walking out the door, shutting it tightly behind her.

Sophie looked back over at the man, whose shoulders were now hunching in as he awkwardly gripped his briefcase in his right hand. She held out her right hand to him. "My name is Sophie Kingston, though I gather you know that already if you're here to see me," she said in English.

The man looked at her hand, before exclaiming, "Oh!" and gently setting down his briefcase onto the ground beside him. He grabbed Sophie's hand and gave it a good shake. "Newt Scamander."

"Scamander?" she repeated as she released his hand. "As in the brother of Theseus Scamander?"

Sophie may live in Romania, but she was originally from England, and she was among thousands of witches and wizards who defied the Minister of Magic and decided to participate in the war. As a result, she too had heard of the great war hero Theseus Scamander.

Mr Scamander ducked his head a little, and from his demeanor change, Sophie knew she had done something wrong by bringing up Theseus. "Yes, Theseus is my brother," he confirmed.

Eager to change the subject, Sophie gestured to the chair that Mr. Scamander was standing beside. "Have a seat, Mr Scamander," she said as she sat down herself in her own chair.

"Please, call me Newt," he insisted as he sat down.

"Then you must call me Sophie," she nodded, and just as she opened her mouth to ask what she could do for him, there was a loud growling noise and the ground shook a bit. "What was that?" she blurted, looking around her desk.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Newt discreetly closing the latch on his briefcase. "I'm sure it was nothing," he assured her. "Perhaps it was one of the dragons."

Not really satisfied with the answer, Sophie sat back down in her chair. "What can I do for you, Newt?"

"I have been commissioned to write a book for Obscurus Books, all about magical creatures," Newt began, and Sophie couldn't help but notice the glow in his eyes as he he said the words "magical creatures". "And I came here to observe some of the dragons that you keep here. Dragons are hard to come by in the wild, mainly because the wizarding world doesn't really allow for dragons to be out in the wild, so I thought coming here was the next best thing. I understand that you are the primary caregiver for the Chinese Fireballs here?"

Sophie nodded. "I am."

"Well, I would like to observe them and compare them with Chinese Fireballs that I have noticed in the wild," Newt continued. "I thought that it would be an interesting concept to compare creatures in the wild to creatures that are cared for by humans."

She nodded again. It all made sense to Sophie, herself a lover of magical creatures. This book that Newt was talking about with such passion sounded like it was going to be really good once it was done. "Anything that you need, Newt, I promise you that the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary will provide it for you. We also have Common Welsh Greens, Hungarian Horntails, Norwegian Ridgebacks, Swedish Short-Snouts, Romanian Longhorn, and Ukrainian Ironbellies in case you were interested."

Sophie almost laughed at the excited expression on Newt's face. She ripped out a blank sheet of paper from one of the notebooks on her desk and scribbled down a bunch of names. "These are the names of the Chief Caregivers of each of the dragon species and where their offices are located. My best friend, Alexandra Funar, is in charge of the Romanian Longhorns." She folded the piece of paper. "Once again, anything you have need of, please feel free to ask. I am here from nine am to five pm, though I usually stay longer, and I'm usually here on weekends too, so if you need anything from me, I am always here." She held out the paper to Newt.

"Thank you very much, Sophie," Newt said gratefully as he took the paper from her. Their fingers brushed, and Sophie felt a tingle run up and down the length of her arm, one that hadn't been there when she originally shook Newt's hand. She did her best to ignore it as she let go of the paper. Newt folded it further and tucked it into his pocket. "I appreciate this very much."

Just as Sophie opened her mouth to say something, she heard the same growling from before, though louder. "What _is_ that?" Sophie wondered as she got up from her chair. "Excuse me," she said as she went over to her door. She swung it open and poked her head out the door, looking up and down the hall. The last time she had heard that kind of growling, one of the baby Swedish Short-Snouts had escaped without anyone noticing, and it nearly burned down their lobby.

Sophie frowned but stepped back inside and shut the door once more. Just as she did, this time she _saw_ the latch on Newt's suitcase become undone, though Newt hadn't done it. It had happened _on its own_.

Sophie knew she shouldn't have been surprised (after all, she and Newt both possessed magic, and it didn't get any more surprising than that), but what peaked her interest was how Newt hastily bent over and closed the latch on the suitcase once more. "I've been meaning to get that fixed," he laughed awkwardly, and before Sophie could question him further, he abruptly stood up from his chair. He grabbed the suitcase by the handle and walked over to the door where Sophie was standing.

"Thank you so much again for your help, Sophie," Newt said as he came to a stop in front of her. He held his hand out to her. "It was very nice meeting you."

Sophie _still_ wanted to ask questions, but she knew Newt wasn't going to give up the answers. Instead, she took his hand and shook it. She felt that same tingly feeling, though this time much stronger as she said, "It was very nice to meet you too, Newt. Let me know if you need anything."

Newt nodded as he let go of her hand, and Sophie opened her office door for him. The two bid each other farewell, and Sophie shut the door behind Newt as he walked down the hallway and towards the lobby, where the exit was.

Sophie leaned against the door and ran her hand up the arm that had touched Newt's. She didn't know _why_ she had felt that tingle, and she didn't know if she liked it or not.

The telephone on Sophie's desk rang, and she broke herself out of her thoughts as she went over to answer it. Her magical coworkers thought that she was silly for owning a Muggle device, but she thought that it would be a useful device to have, especially because she had a telephone at home (her witch mother had very much adopted Muggle customs after marrying her Muggle father) and it was the best way to reach home. If you asked Sophie, sometimes she thought that the telephone was a better method of communication than messenger owls. Owls could lose post, they could get lost, or be just plain rude and lazy.

She answered the phone and sat back down in her chair. "Hello?" she greeted.

"Sophie!" her mother exclaimed, and Sophie winced as she drew the phone away from her ear. "Will you be home for dinner tonight? I'm making your favourite!"

Her mother was always trying to use incentives like making her favourite meals to get Sophie to come home early. Sophie didn't spend much time at home, mainly because her mother drove her crazy, but also because home just didn't feel like home without her father anymore. Her Muggle father was just as daring and adventurous as Sophie, which was something that her mother disapproved of. Thea Kingston was always said before Sophie was born that her father plus magic would be a terrible mix, and lo and behold, Sophie came out a carbon copy of her father, with the same features and the same zest for life, but with magic. The day Thea realized this was the day that she nearly had a heart attack.

But Sophie was in good spirits after meeting Newt Scamander. She wasn't sure what it was about him (maybe it was the passion with which he spoke about his job, maybe it was the positive air that he had about him, or maybe it was just the excitement of meeting someone new) but meeting him had put Sophie in a good mood. Therefore, she responded, "I'll be home soon, mother. I just have a few things to finish up."

"Don't be too long!" she said, and the two of them hung up after saying goodbye.

Sophie quickly finished up her notes and the other things that she had to do, put some books that she needed to look over at home into her bag and then shrugged on her coat. She had just put her hand on top of the light switch to turn the light off, but the sight of her naked finger reminded Sophie of something very important that she had nearly forgotten.

She looked back over the desk she had just left, and with sigh, walked back over to it. She pulled the drawer to the desk open and reached in. She drew her hand back up and stared at the diamond ring with disdain.

With no choice, Sophie put the ring back onto her finger. She immediately felt the effect of putting the ring back on. Before, she felt much lighter, happier. But now she once again felt herself shrink, like she was prisoner and the ring was her shackles.

She clenched her hand into a fist and dropped it to her side as she went out the door, turning the light off and shutting the door behind her without looking back.

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 **TBC...**

 **Let me know what you think! Obviously this story takes place before the events of the first movie, just FYI.**

 **REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


	2. The Romanian Dragon Sanctuary

**Disclaimer:** I do not own "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" in any way, shape, or form! I only own my OC, "Sophia Millicent Kingston" and the plot of this story!

 **Author's Note:** Hey! Here's the next chapter!

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

The delicious smell of roast chicken was what greeted Sophie when she walked through the door, and for the briefest second, she was glad that she had decided to come home early enough to share dinner with her family.

That feeling immediately disappeared as her mother came into the front hallway. She shook her head at Sophie. "You're not wearing that blouse I got you!"

It was a hideous blouse; very old lady. When Sophie saw it, she snuck it out of the house and into the donation bin for a local homeless shelter. "I couldn't find it this morning," she lied swiftly as she took off her shoes.

Thea shook her head again. "Dinner will be ready shortly," she told her. "Go wash up."

Sophie hung her coat in the closet and then made her way up the stairs of their two level home. The house itself wasn't that big; the kitchen and the dining room were one big room, and you could walk right into the living room when you walked into the house. Astra and Penelope shared a room, and because she was the oldest, Sophie got her own. All three rooms were cramped together, with only one bathroom for the four of them to use. Mornings were never fun.

Penelope was in Sophie's room, going through her closet. She turned when the door opened, and Sophie was hit again with the shock of the resemblance between Penelope and their mother. The same brown eyes, the same sandy brown hair, the same nose shape. Sophie blinked before shaking her head. "What are you doing in here?" she asked, though her question had more exhaustion in it than bite.

"My friends and I are going to the cinema tomorrow," she answered. "And I wanted to see if you had anything nice to wear. None of my clothes seem right."

She set her bag down on the ground and eyed her sister. "Why? Who's going?"

Penelope blushed and looked away. "Just a few of us..."

Based on her answer, Sophie knew that in attendance would be a boy, and a boy that Penelope fancied at that. Taking pity on her 16 year old sister, Sophie said, "You can wear my purple blouse; it'll go nicely with your beige skirt."

Penelope glowed up as she reached into the closet and pulled out said blouse. "Thank you so much, Sophie!" she squealed. She gave her sister a hug and then ran back to her room.

Sophie shook her head at her as she made her way to the bathroom. She washed her hands and splashed some water on her face, trying to wake up a little. She had been up since 7 am, and she had more work to look forward to tonight. The latest she would be going to bed would be 11 pm.

She made her way downstairs and into the kitchen to see if her mum needed any help. To her surprise, when she walked into the kitchen, her 21 year old sister Astra was helping their mum, pouring the boiled vegetables into a serving bowl and preparing some bread.

While Sophie took after their father and Penelope took after their mother, Astra ended up as a mixture of both. She had their father's blond hair, like Sophie, but their mother's brown eyes, like Penelope. She was short, like their mother, but had broad shoulders, like their father. When she was younger, Sophie thought that Astra would eventually end up looking like only one of their parents, but her looks carried into adulthood; she was a perfect blend of Matthew Kingston and Thea Welland.

Astra looked up and grinned when she saw Sophie. "Sophie! Wonderful! Can you grab the butter and put it onto the table with the bread?"

Lately, Astra had been helping their mum more and more with the domestic things, such as cooking, cleaning, and shopping for groceries, which made Sophie suspect that her relationship with her former Navy boyfriend was leading to somewhere serious.

Sophie merely nodded and grabbed what she had been asked to do. She set the items down on the table, and she had just walked back into the kitchen when Thea asked, "Will John be joining us tonight?"

Sophie shook her head, and on the inside she was gladly shouting "no". On the outside, however, she simply answered, "No. He has to work."

"That man is working so hard for you, you know that?" Thea nodded her head dreamily, as if she were the one marrying John and not Sophie. "You got lucky, Sophie."

Lucky wasn't the word that Sophie would use. She gave a tight lipped smile before filling a jug with water and setting it down on the table.

Dinner was a quiet affair, with their mother carrying most of the conversation, prattling on about this and that. There wasn't really much of an awkward silence; Thea could talk about anything and everything, and it was a welcome relief when dinner was over.

Thea went to her bedroom to lie down for a bit, because she had been tired that day from work, and Penelope had schoolwork to do, which left Sophie and Astra to clean the dishes and the kitchen.

"How was work today?" Astra inquired as she washed the dishes and handed them to Sophie. They could've done it using magic, but Matthew had discouraged it, saying that they couldn't use magic to get them out of everything. Plus, it was a mutual time that the sisters could spend catching up.

She shrugged as she tried the plate off. "It was fine. A man came in today, said he was doing research for a book he's been writing. He wants to make use of the sanctuary's facilities."

"Who?" Astra went on.

"Newt Scamander," she answered as she put the glass away into the cupboard.

"That name sounds familiar," Astra thought aloud as she turned off the taps.

"His brother is Theseus Scamander," Sophie supplied as she grabbed the dishtowel to put into the laundry, tossing it over her shoulder.

"Right!" her sister nodded as she leaned against the sink. "Is he as handsome as they say?"

"Very," Sophie found herself blurting. Once she started, the words wouldn't stop. "He's blond, and he's got the most amazing pair of green eyes. Newt Scamander's certainly a looker."

"No, I meant Theseus," Astra corrected, and Sophie felt her ears turn pink.

"Oh," she muttered, and she cleared her throat. "Theseus wasn't there. It was just Newt."

"Oh," Astra said, seemingly disappointed. She shrugged. "I'm sure Mr Scamander is just as good looking, though I haven't really heard of him." She tilted her head to the side. "Didn't he go to Hogwarts at the same time as us? I mean, I was only first year, but weren't you two in the same year?"

Sophie couldn't place it, either. She felt like she remembered Newt Scamander, albeit a much younger version of him, wandering the halls and in the same classes as her. They both shared a love of magical creatures, that much Sophie remembered. She could almost see him in her classes, but he was always in the background. At the same time, Sophie was always wrapped up with her own friends to really notice anything else going on around her, much less Newt Scamander, who always preferred to blend into the background.

She shook her head free of the thoughts. "I don't remember that well," she said as she pushed away from the counter. "I should go. I have some work to do."

"Me too," Astra sighed. Astra was a herbologist, and she had her own shop in their little town. It was a Muggle store, but those who had magic could see the magical elements of it, and then Astra would specifically cater to them in a magical way. She even went and taught a few guest lectures at Durmstrang Institute, the wizarding school stationed in Norway. It was quite far away, but Astra enjoyed the trip. The one thing that she disliked about it was their immense interest in the Dark Arts. If she guest lectured, she always made sure that she wasn't there for very long.

The two sisters bid each other a good night and went to their separate rooms. As Sophie walked into her empty bedroom, she was thankful once again that she got her own bedroom. Then again, it was Sophie that contributed most to the mortage of the house, so she saw that it was only fair that she got her own room.

She began working, but shortly in, she realized that work would be hard that night, because she couldn't stop thinking about Newt Scamander. His blond hair, his green eyes, the awkward way he wouldn't meet her gaze as they spoke. And then her mind drifted to when his suitcase had moved on its own not once, but twice. What could he possibly be hiding in there?

Sophie shook her head free of the thoughts and forced herself to focus. She got a couple hours worth of work done when she decided that that would be enough for tonight. She washed her face, brushed her teeth, and changed into her comfiest pair of pajamas before sliding into bed, exhausted. She welcomed sleep, but she couldn't stop thinking about Mr Scamander, even as she drifted off.

* * *

The next morning, Sophie was out of the house early in the morning. She made herself some eggs and coffee, and then left before anybody else in the house could wake up.

She was at work by 9 am, and she welcomed the feeling as she walked in through the doors. At home she may not like the persona that she had to put on for her mother, but at the sanctuary, she could be whoever she wanted to be. It didn't matter who she was because here, Sophie was in her element.

She went straight to her office and settled in, draping her coat across her chair and pulling her papers out of her bag and onto her desk. Sophie froze mid set up as she looked down at her engagement ring, the diamond glowing in the light from the room.

She took it off and tossed it back into the drawer that she had the day before. If she was going to be herself here, she couldn't have the ring on her finger.

The next few hours passed blissfully, with Sophie doing her daily round of check ups with all the Chinese Fireball dragons. They all seemed to be the same, but Felix's health was still getting lower and lower. Sophie decided to go with Vasile's suggestion and changed Felix's food back to cattle and hoped that he would show signs of improvement.

"Hey girlie," Sophie heard as she walked down the hall, and she grinned when she saw her best friend, Alexandra Funar catching up to her. The wings of the Chinese Fireballs and the Romanian Longhorns were right next to each other, which was a good thing for the friends, because it meant that they could see each other a lot. Alexandra was a tall woman, with striking brown eyes and dark hair. She was fluent in Romanian, but she spoke English with Sophie, which she was proficient enough in. Her accent wasn't even that bad. "How are you this morning?"

"Good," she responded as they passed someone wheeling a cart of pig carcasses to the feeding area of the Swedish Short-Snouts. "And yourself? How was your date last night?"

"Most gorgeous man I have ever laid eyes on," Alexandra confirmed. "But most boring person _alive_. I mean, I thought that _you_ were boring when we first met, but this man spent an _hour_ talking about the difference between dragon heartstring cored wands and phoenix feathered cored wands."

Sophie couldn't help but grin when Alexandra called her boring. To anybody who met the pair, they wouldn't have guessed that the girls were best friends: Alexandra was a promiscuous woman, looking for a new man every night and drinking her days away. Sophie was a shy woman, engaged to only one man and hardly ever going out. The one thing that the two shared in common at first was their love for dragons, and it was when the two had to work together once that Alexandra suggested that the two go out for a drink together (to an underground bar, no less). They'd been best friends ever since.

"I take it you're not going to see him again?" Sophie wondered.

To her surprise, Alexandra shook her head. "The man is _amazing_ in bed. I would be a fool _not_ to make a second date."

Sophie snickered as they came to her office, and she was surprised to see Newt Scamander standing at her office door, looking uncomfortable as he held tightly onto the handle of his suitcase. "Newt?" she said.

He looked up at the mention of his name, and he instantly relaxed when he saw her. "Sophie, good morning," he greeted with a nod.

Sophie and Alexandra came to a stop in front of Newt. She nodded at her friend. "This is my best friend, Alexandra Funar, that I mentioned," she introduced to Newt, and the two shook hands as Sophie continued. "Alexandra, this is Newt Scamander." She turned to the man. "What are you doing here? Have you been standing there long?"

Newt shook his head. "Not very long. The secretary said that you weren't in, but I just said that I would wait for you to come back, which was maybe an hour ago..."

 _An hour? Why didn't he just leave?_ Sophie ignored the questions that she wanted to ask and instead asked, "What can I help you with?"

"Oh!" he exclaimed, as if he just remembered why he had come to see Sophie. "I was hoping to start my research today, and I was wondering if you could help me."

Sophie was a little surprised. She hadn't imagined that Newt would take her up on her offer so quick, but she imagined that he was a busy man and couldn't stay here for very long. The sooner he got to work, the better. She nodded. "Of course, Newt," she said, and she looked over to Alexandra.

Alexandra nodded. "I should get going, anyways. Ana, who works with the Hungarian Horntails, asked for some help today with Robert."

Robert was their most dangerous Hungarian Horntail. He had been captured off the coast of Ireland, and then transferred to the sanctuary where they could contain and properly take care of him (and in the process, the Muggles and Wizards that lived in Ireland). "I'll see you later."

The raven haired girl nodded and waved. "It was nice to meet you, Mr Scamander," she told him as she retreated.

"You as well, Miss Funar," he responded, and he turned back to Sophie.

The two stood there awkwardly for a second before Sophie gestured to behind her, the direction that she had just come from. "Shall we?"

He nodded, and the two of them began their descent down the hallway. "You're in luck; I just came from my afternoon rounds, so the results are still new."

"That's good," he said, and Sophie pretended not to notice the mild shaking that his suitcase was doing.

She came to a stop in front of the pens for the Chinese Fireballs. "Welcome to the Chinese Fireballs of the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary," she introduced as she opened the doors that led to the pens. On the other side of the pens were the doors that led into them; the room that Sophie and Newt had walked into was more of an observatory.

The Romanian Dragon Sanctuary held five Chinese Fireballs. There were three pens that were 30 feet tall and 25 feet wide. The tallest Chinese Fireball they had was 23 feet, which was around the average height for Chinese Fireballs, but the reason that the pens were so big was so that they had room.

Unlike other dragons, they were more tolerant of their own kind. As a result, they were able to group together some of them. Cassian and Magnus shared one, Fiona and Haldra shared one, and Felix got his own, because he wasn't as tolerant as the other males. The reason they separated the males and the females was because they didn't want them mating.

"And you oversee all of them?" he asked as they walked in. There was a large, glass, fireproof window that separate them from the dragons, so they were right up to the window. The males were resting, their large scarlet and smooth scaled wings covering themselves as they slept, and the females appeared to be conversing, though Sophie couldn't say for sure. Felix was eating, always choosing to do so whenever he thought that people weren't around. Sophie thought that it was because he didn't want to share his food, and he thought if others were around he'd have to. She mentally crossed her fingers that the diet switch had worked and that his health would improve; he still looked a little sluggish to her.

"Yes," she confirmed. "Though Felix is my favourite. I was there when he hatched from his egg-it was my first real project to do on my own. The other four were already here when I arrived."

Newt nodded thoughtfully. "And what has their behaviour been?"

"Tolerant," Sophie answered. "We don't tend to put them all together, mainly because we don't have the room but also because if there are too many of them in one space they get agitated."

"Does Felix spend a lot of time on his own?" Newt continued, looking over at the lone dragon as he feasted. "Is his behaviour different because of it?"

She shook her head. "No. He prefers to be by himself. We tried putting him in with Cassian and Magnus a few times but he got very territorial. We also tried putting him in with Fiona and Haldra, but as two females versus one male, they easily dominated him and therefore, he doesn't like being in the same pen as them either. We bring him in stimulants, such as performing tricks for him with our magic, and he responds positively to them."

Newt nodded again, and it looked like he was tucking the information away for later. Sophie didn't see any notebooks out for him to write down the information. "Can we go into the pens?"

"Later," Sophie responded as they left the observatory room. "After lunch is their resting time."

"I see," Newt said as the two stepped out and into the hall. "Thank you very much for your help, Sophie."

Sophie noted the finality of his words. "Do you help with anything else?" she asked, a little disappointed that he was going to leave already.

"I have other things I must attend to," he told her. "But I will return tomorrow, if that is all right."

"Yes!" Sophie said, a little too quickly, and she forced herself to calm down. "That would be fine. I'm here during the week, anyways."

"Then I hope you have a lovely day, Sophie," he said warmly, and Sophie found herself blushing.

She forced the feeling down as he walked away, the two of them waving as he did so. But no matter what she did, she found herself in high spirits as she returned to her office, glad that she saw Newt today and that she would be seeing him tomorrow.

Her happiness was short lived, because when she got to her office, the first thing she noticed was the Barn owl by her window and the letter that was on her desk.

The first thing that she did was pay the owl, and she shut the window as it flew out. She opened the letter and groaned when she realized who it was from.

 _Dinner reservations at Mihai's. I'll see you there at 8._

 _-John_

She had forgotten that she had made dinner plans with her fiance, and she slouched as she sat down in her chair. She threw the letter to the side and decided to bury her head in her work and hoped that time would pass slowly for the rest of the day.

* * *

 **TBC...**

 **Thank you for all of the love! The first couple of chapters are setting up character, but the plot starts in chapter 4!**

 **Until next time!**

 **REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


	3. Williams and Funar

**Disclaimer:** I do not own "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" in any way, shape, or form! I only own my OC, "Sophie Millicent Kingston" and the plot of this story!

 **Author's Note:** Hi! Here's the next chapter!

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Around eight, Sophie packed her desk up and left her office. She slipped her ring back on, because John would've surely asked where it had gone.

She sighed as walked out onto the streets and hailed a taxi. It didn't take long to get to the restaurant that he had told her to meet him, and before she knew it, she was walking through the doors and scanning the crowds, looking for her fiance.

Once she found him, she drew a breath and walked over to him. John Williams was an Englishman, born and raised in England. In fact, the only reason that he had come to Romania was because Sophie was returning to Romania after the death of her father and he wanted to be with her. He had dark hair with dark brown eyes, and sometimes Sophie actually managed to find them attractive.

"There you are, sweetheart!" John said loudly, and Sophie flushed at the looks that she got from the other patrons as she arrived at the table. John stood up to give her a hug and a kiss, but she quickly slid into her chair across from him. He awkwardly sat back down as Sophie picked up her menu so that she wouldn't have to answer any questions from him.

"You're late," he told her as he settled in his seat.

Sophie frowned and check her wristwatch. "It's only 8:15."

"But we had agreed on 8," John insisted. "You must've gotten lost in your work. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: you spend way too much time at that sanctuary."

Sophie clutched her menu tighter and tried not to rip it into two. Ever since she and John had met, he had never approved of her work as a dragonologist. He deemed it "too dangerous for a woman" and that Sophie should be focusing instead on domestic work, such as staying home and learning to take care of the house. John himself was an Auror, though Sophie never complained about it. In fact, she was rather happy that he worked as an Auror, because it meant that his hours were often irregular, so she had an excuse not to see him.

"Well, it is my job," she said as neutrally as possible. "And I wouldn't trade it for the world."

"You'll have to cut back on your hours once we're married," he thought as he stroked his face, scratching at the hint of a beard that was starting to form. "I'll cut back as well. I feel if we don't spend much time together when we're engaged, what will it be like when we're married?"

 _Better_ , Sophie thought to herself as the waiter arrived. They placed their orders, and the waiter took their menus. "How was work today?" he asked her, the first question of the night that made John seem interested in her.

"It was good," she nodded. "This man named Newt Scamander stopped by today. He's writing a book on magical creatures and wants information from the sanctuary."

"A book on magical creatures?" he repeated. "Like an extermination field guide?"

Sophie immediately shook her head. "No, that's not what it seems like at all. When he talks about magical creatures, he talks about them with such love. I think it's more of a book of information on these creatures, information that will help people not be afraid of them."

John nodded thoughtfully. "Were you two alone in your office?"

Sophie sat straighter. "Yes. Is that a problem?" she asked, her voice heavily laced with deadly accusation.

John quickly shook his head. "N-no, of course not!" he stated, though Sophie could tell that he had a problem with it. "I was just wondering if he's working with anybody else at the sanctuary, is all."

She let it go. This was no place to start an argument with John. "I think he's going to be working with Alexandra as well, though I'm not sure."

"That's nice," he nodded, and an awkward silence started creeping its way into their conversation.

"How was your day?" Sophie quickly asked in order to spare them of the silence.

John seemed grateful for the question and began his story, complete with an hour by hour description.

As John spoke, Sophie had to admit to herself that John wasn't a bad guy. In fact, he was a really good one, and Sophie should be glad that she was marrying such a good guy when she could be marrying someone terrible.

But as hard as Sophie tried, she couldn't love him.

She wasn't sure what it was. Maybe it was his disapproval of her job. Maybe it was the way he thought that she shouldn't be working at all, instead staying home and spending all day cooking meals and looking after children. Maybe it was the way he interrupted her when she spoke, or the way he just didn't seem that interested in whatever Sophie wanted to talk about. She just didn't love the man.

Then why was she marrying him, one might ask?

Back when Sophie and John had met, Sophie's father had just passed away. John was the son of Thea's good friend's Joyce, and the two spent some time together as Sophie stayed in London in order to help take care of her family. He always showed up to her door, wondering if she needed anything. He walked her anywhere she went, even when she begged him not to. He bought her little things, even when he didn't have the budget to do so. But what Sophie didn't know was that John Williams was actually rich. Very, _very_ rich.

Thea knew this, obviously, and when she noticed that John and Sophie were spending some time together, she advised Sophie to start seriously seeing John. When Sophie protested, Thea reminded her that they didn't have as much money as they had before, because Matthew had brought in most of the money through his self made business. After he passed away, the business ended.

With that in mind, Sophie felt guilty, and then started spending more time with John. As a result, John started spending on her family, and Sophie always felt her heart warm when she saw how happy Astra or Penelope were with the little trinkets that John had gotten for them. The two girls had stopped smiling after the death of their father, and Sophie was happy to see them happy.

After some time had passed, Sophie decided that it was time for her to go back to work, which still paid very good money, money that they could use. Thea saw no sense in staying in London when her eldest daughter lived in Romania, so the family of four decided to move together.

When John found this out, he proposed to Sophie immediately, saying that he didn't want to be without her. She asked for some time to think it over, and her mother told her that she wasn't going to find an offer like this again, especially the older that Sophie was getting.

Sophie, seeing that John wasn't a bad man and would be a good fit for her family, accepted. She assumed that at this point in her life, she wasn't going to fall in love with anybody, and a young, rich, handsome man was asking for her hand in marriage. She would've been promised with a stable life, and that was what was appealing to Sophie.

Some days she regretted it, some days she didn't. But Sophie found herself noticing that she was having more days where she was regretting accepting the offer of marriage, and she wasn't sure how to stop having these days. Most of the time she was able to get over it, but there was a nagging feeling in her stomach that wouldn't go away that was telling her how wrong it was that she was marrying a man that she didn't love.

Sophie ignored these thoughts and instead dug into her food when it arrived, deciding to deal with these feelings on other day.

* * *

The next day, Sophie had gone into work expecting to see Newt Scamander. She even went in an hour early, hoping that he had been there waiting like he had the day before. To her surprise, she was disappointed when he wasn't there.

Sophie took off her ring as usual and discarded it into the drawer. She hated the way that she felt whenever she saw the ring and whenever she took it off, but she had become accustomed to not wearing it at work. In fact, she had stopped wearing it at work for so long that some people asked if her engagement was off, or men who didn't know that she was engaged would ask her out for dinner.

A little bit before lunch, Sophie made her way to Alexandra's office in the next wing. She and Alexandra never knocked for each other, so she simply swung the door open as she said, "I forgot to grab lunch this morning. Want to get something to eat?"

But Sophie was met with silence, and she furrowed her eyebrows when she noticed that the office was empty. And it wasn't just empty as if Alexandra had just stepped out for a moment, but it was _empty_. The light was off, none of Alexandra's things covered the desk, and her jacket was noticeably absent from the coat rack that she had in the corner of the room.

"She's not in today," Sophie heard, and she turned around to see Luca Barbu, who worked as a researcher in the Swedish Short Snout department.

"Why not?" she asked as she turned around to face him completely, shutting the door behind her.

He shrugged. "She sent an owl this morning saying that she was sick and that she wasn't going to be coming in. She didn't provide much detail."

Sophie nodded thoughtfully and thanked Luca for telling her. She then made her way back to her office and grabbed her coat from her chair. She slipped it on and then left a sign on the door saying that she had stepped out for her lunch break and then walked out of the sanctuary.

It was strange for Alexandra to stay home from work. Even if she was sick, she still came because she hated the idea of lost money. And it was even stranger for her not to tell Sophie that she wasn't coming in. Sophie saw her _just_ yesterday. She couldn't be so sick as to choose to stay home, could she?

The cold summer air greeted her as she stepped outside. Summer was slowly starting to draw to a close, which meant that sooner rather than later, Sophie would have to switch out her skirts and thin coat for trousers and thicker coats. It was also almost time for Penelope to return to school. Even though Hogwarts only accepted students from Great Britain, because Penelope had been a student at Hogwarts before she had moved to Romania to live with Sophie and the rest of their family, the Headmaster Armando Dippet had kindly extended the boundaries for Penelope and allowed her to continue studying there (and by kindly, Sophie meant that she had gone and threatened him with John investigating his role as Headmaster if he hadn't allowed Penelope to continue to attend Hogwarts).

Penelope was sixteen, meaning that she was going into her last year of Hogwarts, and then she could find a job in her desired field-namely, Transfiguration. Penelope had become inspired to be a Transfiguration professor by her favourite professor, Albus Dumbledore, who happened to be the head of the department. He told her that there would be a position waiting for her should she choose to apply, and Sophie could swear she saw her eyes sparkle with the light of her dreams when she told her.

Alexandra lived by the sanctuary, so Sophie chose to walk over to the small apartment building where Alexandra lived. Before she went, she stopped by a restaurant and got some soup for the both of them, thinking that if Alexandra was sick then she would need some hot food.

After being granted access to the building, Sophie took the stairs to the third floor where Alexandra's room was. She let herself in with the key that Alexandra had given her and walked inside. "Alex?" she called out, locking the door behind her. She set the container of soup down on the counter in the kitchen and shrugged off her coat. "Alex?" she tried again, tossing her coat onto the couch in the joined living room.

She went over to Alexandra's bedroom and knocked. "Alex?" she said gently, and when she heard a soft moan, she took that as an okay to enter and opened the door.

Alex's bedroom was small, only really big enough for the bed and one regular sized dresser. The bed was in the middle of the room, and Alexandra had barely managed enough strength to turn in bed when Sophie had opened the door.

"Alex," Sophie breathed when she saw the condition that her friend was in. She was very pale, with sweat beading all along her forehead. Her eyes were red and sunken in, with deep purple bags under her eyes. There were some veins around her eyes that were a mix of a sickly green and a worrying grey, and the area around her lips were a faint orange colour. There was a bucket next to the bed, and judging from the smell that was coming from it, Alexandra had been sick several times into it. "What happened?" she asked as she came over to her.

Alexandra coughed and shook her head. "I don't know," she barely managed, and Sophie fought the urge to lean in to hear her better in case she caught whatever it was that Alexandra had. It must've been bad, because Alexandra was speaking Romanian instead of English like she normally did with Sophie. "I came home last night absolutely fine, and then I woke up this morning and couldn't get out of bed."

"Well, I brought you some soup," she offered, patting the blanket where Alexandra's legs were. "I'll bring it in here."

Alexandra nodded her thanks as Sophie turned and walked out of the room. She poured some soup into a bowl, grabbed a spoon, a glass of water, and some unsalted crackers and put them on a tray. She carried the tray into Alexandra's bedroom, and when Sophie saw her friend struggling to sit up so that she could place the tray onto her lap, she said, "Just lie down. I'll feed you."

So Alexandra let Sophie spoon feed her some soup, though she stopped before she could finish half of the bowl. "I'm not very hungry," she told Sophie as she laid back down.

"Can I do anything else for you?" Sophie asked, setting the bowl aside onto the side table. She covered it with another plate, hoping that Alexandra would just use a spell to heat it up and eat it later.

Alexandra shook her head. "Thank you for bringing me food," she smiled.

"Can't I bring you some medicine or something?" she tried. "I'm sure Astra has some natural remedies or something..."

"I already took some," Alexandra said. "I'm sure this will go away after a couple of days if I keep taking the medicine. Honestly, Soph, I'll probably be back to work next week." She leaned over to look at the clock that was on her wall, and then she looked back to Sophie. "You should get back to work. It looks like your lunch break is almost over."

"Well, if you're sure," Sophie said uneasily as she stood up. "I'll come check up on you again after work tonight, and I'll keep coming to check on you."

"Thank you," Alexandra said, and she turned over so she could settle in for another nap. "Goodbye, Sophie."

"Goodbye, Alex," she responded as she made her way to the door. Sophie stood in the doorway for a second, looking at Alexandra as she slipped into sleep, and then quietly shut the door.

She had never seen an illness quite like this. Of course, it could just be the common flu, but Sophie had never seen a face with that kind of colour before. People's faces just didn't turn orange or gray mixed with green, right?

There was something that wasn't quite right with what was wrong with Alexandra, and Sophie could feel her stomach tying into knots as she worried.

When she returned to work, she found herself so lost in her worry that she almost missed Newt Scamander calling out her name. "Miss Kingston! Miss Kingston!" he called out, and Sophie stopped walking as she turned around to see him catching up to her.

"Oh, Mr Scamander," she acknowledged distractedly as she went back to walking in a dreamlike state. What illness could cause your face to turn green and grey? "I didn't see you there. I apologize."

"That's quite all right," Newt assured her. "You looked like you were thinking deeply about something. I often get like that as well when I'm thinking very hard about something. Once, I was thinking about something so hard that I walked right into a tree and into a pile of mud."

Sophie was in a worried state, but she couldn't help the giggle that rose out of her chest at Newt's story. "Was the tree okay, at least?" she asked, with an air of jest in her question.

Newt smiled tentatively, which made Sophie's smile bigger. "The tree was absolutely fine," he informed her. "I, on the other hand, was washing mud off of myself for a week."

She laughed again, and Newt smiled once more. His smile relaxed a little as he asked, "Are you all right, Miss Kingston? Is there something wrong?"

Sophie shook her head. She barely knew Newt Scamander; she didn't want to burden him with her troubles. "Nothing that you have to concern yourself with." She came to a stop in front of her office. "Your concern is the Chinese Fireballs," she said as she opened the door and stepped inside. "When you weren't here this morning, I didn't think you were coming today."

"Oh, I had some things to do in town this morning," he informed her. "My apologies, I should have clarified yesterday when I would be coming."

"It's not a problem," she assured him. She went over to her desk as Newt waited awkwardly in the doorway. She finally managed a good look at Newt as she opened her desk, and she noticed that she had his suitcase with him once again. "Are you a drifter, Mr Scamander?"

He gave her a confused look, and she looked down pointedly at his suitcase. "Oh," he said as he held it out a bit from him to take a look at it. "No. I just carry it around it."

"Everywhere?" she went on as she opened her drawers and pulled out a set of keys.

"Yes," he answered, though he offered no reason why.

Sophie decided not to push it as she made her way back over to where Newt was standing. "Are you ready, Newt?" she asked, a grin on her face.

"For what?" he asked, a hesitant look on his face at the excitement on Sophie's.

She held up the keys. "We're going to go meet some Chinese Fireballs."

* * *

 **TBC...**

 **So in this chapter we find out how Sophie ended up engaged to her fiance if she didn't care for him that much. I hope the explanation makes sense!**

 **Till next chapter!**

 **Please review if you can, they give me motivation!**

 **REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


	4. Felix

**Disclaimer:** I do not own "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" in any way, shape, or form! I only own my OC, "Sophie Millicent Kingston" and the plot of this story!

 **Author's Note:** So sorry for the gap! Thank you so much for your patience!

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"How does Felix look today?" Newt wondered as he and Sophie walked down the hall.

"His blood pressure is still fairly low, which is concerning," she answered. They turned left at the end of the hall. "Felix doesn't normally get sick, and even if he does, it's never for too long. It is worrying."

She fished the key out of her pocket as they got to the doors that held Felix. The Sanctuary had keys to the pens of the dragons instead of charms because of an unfortunate incident a few years back when a visiting class from Durmstrang decided to pull a prank and used _Alohomora_ to unlock the cell of Phineas, one of their more nervous Welsh Dragons. The excitement of having the door opened was too much for Phineas who ended up nearly burning down the entire north wing of the institution.

She stuck the key into the hole and turned it. Just as she moved to open it, Newt reached out and grabbed her by the arm. "Wait."

Her arm buzzed where he was touching her, but Sophie forced herself to ignore it as she looked over at him. "What is the matter?"

"Are you sure you do not want any kind of protective gear before going in?" he asked nervously, looking down at her lack of protection. "Chinese Fireballs are not known to be very welcoming dragons."

Sophie giggled and waved him off. "No. I've raised Felix since he was a hatchling. He sees me as his mother. He's one of the most tame, domesticated dragons we have here." She grabbed the doorknob again. "If you wish to see Cassian or Magnus, however, we will need the protective gear. They both hate me."

"Why?" he wondered as she opened the door.

"I wish I knew," Sophie shrugged as they stepped inside.

It was unbearably hot inside of Felix's pen, but because his native home was China, Felix needed the warmth of his natural climate. Sophie normally wore short sleeves and rolled up her pant legs before going inside of Felix's pen, but with Newt joining her, she felt a little... self-conscious. She didn't know why. She had absolutely no problem with Vasile, one of the other caregivers to the Chinese Fireballs, seeing her bare arms or exposed ankles. But with Newt... it was different.

Felix had been lightly dozing before they had entered, but when he heard the door to his pen open he lifted his humongous head and opened his scaly eyes. He blinked a few times as his eyes settled on Sophie.

His eyes lit up as he saw his mother, and he sat up completely, flapping his wings in excitement. However, when the scent of another person, a man that he did not know, reached his nose, he reared back and roared. The sound of the mighty cry was loud enough to cause Sophie and Newt to cover their ears as the ground shook.

Felix dove his head toward Newt, as if he was going to attack. And he would have, if Sophie hadn't run in front of Newt and held her arms out. "Stop!" she cried.

The dragon screeched to a halt, its snub-snouted face so close to Sophie's that she could feel his hot breath. Sophie made a stern face at Felix, who barred his teeth at her and refused to yield. She pulled her wand out of the inside pocket of her blazer. She pointed the wand in front of Felix's face and enchanted, " _Lumos_!"

The tip of her wand glowed a brilliant white, and Sophie's eyes had to readjust for a second before she raised her wand to the sky.

Felix snarled, but the expression on Sophie's face told the dragon that she was not going to back down, so he followed the direction of the wand and looked up at the sky. The roof of the sanctuary was clear so that the dragons received a bit of daylight.

"What are you doing?" Newt whispered, his breath tickling Sophie's ear and sending chills down her spine.

"It's a calming technique," Sophie replied just as quietly so as to not disturb the concentration of the creature. "When Felix gets angry, I make him look up at the sky. The shape of the clouds help to calm him down."

"Why?"

"No one knows. One day he was acting so irritable that I had no idea what to do and ended up just pointing to the sky. He looked up and instantly calmed as he looked at the clouds," she answered.

Felix lazily looked down at Sophie, who resumed her stoic expression. His wings drooped as he bowed his head to his mother, finally yielding. He whined in apology, a noise that was made low in his throat.

Sophie smiled as she reached up and ran a hand against his scaled face. "It's all right, Felix. Everything is okay." She lowered her wand, said, " _Nox_ ", and the tip of her wand extinguished. She tucked the wand back into her pocket before looking over her shoulder at Newt, who had an impressed expression on his face. He looked like he was committing every piece of interaction to memory in order to write it all down later. "I've brought a friend today." She looked back at her dragon. "You've got to be very calm and very nice. Mummy will be very upset if you hurt her friend."

Felix made another guttural noise, but Sophie simply smiled at his response. "Thank you very much." She stroked his nose. "Mummy knows you haven't been feeling well lately, so we'll be gone very very fast. I promise."

Felix roared softly before lowering his body. He settled his arms underneath him before lowering his head to the ground in front of Newt. Sophie grinned as she looked at Newt, nodding her head at the dragon at the unsure expression on his face. "It's fine. He's calm down a bit. Though we should hurry because he's not feeling well."

Newt whipped out a notebook from his coat pocket and began scribbling down something. He walked around Felix, writing so fast and so messy that Sophie couldn't make out any of his notes.

"Is Felix like this with anyone else?" Newt wondered as he made his way back over to Sophie, who was calmly stroking Felix on a spot she knew he liked to be petted.

"Not this tame, no," she answered, and Newt recorded that in his book. "He's generally well mannered, but when he gets angry he will yield to no one but me. I usually have to be brought in to get him to calm down."

He nodded thoughtfully as he wrote. "It's strange. I've never seen a dragon - even a domesticated one - this submissive before."

"As I said before, he sees me as his mother," she reminded him. "And no creature in their right mind would disobey their mother."

Newt nodded. "That is true. My own mother inspired me to become a magizoologist. She bred hippogriffs."

"That's interesting," Sophie commented. "I don't really know what inspired me to become a magizoologist. I guess I just loved dragons enough to want to be involved with them for the rest of my life."

"It's a dedication that not many have," Newt said as flipped a page in his notebook. "It takes intense skills."

"I suppose that's true," she allowed as Felix's eyes began to droop. She quickly checked her watch, looked at Newt and said, "We should leave. It's time for Felix's nap, and he's always in a foul mood if he misses it."

Newt nodded, and Sophie loving patted Felix once more before gesturing her head to the door. The two walked out of the pen as Felix raised his wings and covered himself with them, settling in for his afternoon nap.

"That was amazing," Newt said as Sophie locked the door behind them.

"It was nothing really," Sophie insisted, tucking the key into her pocket. "Felix is just a little wary around new people. He probably would have torched you if I hadn't stopped him."

Newt waved it off as the two began the walk back to her office. "That's not the most danger I've ever been in. Once, my Niffler managed to escape on the streets of Paris." He shook his head. "You can imagine how difficult it was to reign him back in, especially without getting the Muggle police involved."

"'Niffler'?" Sophie repeated. "I'm afraid I don't know what that is."

"It is a creature native to Britain," Newt answered. "It has a long snout and a coat of black fur. They _seem_ harmless, but they are extremely mischievous. They are attracted to shiny things, you see. It makes them perfect for finding treasure, but when they get excited, they can wreak havoc."

Sophie nodded thoughtfully, though in the back of her mind she wondered where Newt kept this Niffler when he was constantly on the move. "How is the book writing coming along?"

Newt looked like he had aged fifty years when Sophie asked her question. "I have just barely begun. It is a lot of work and while I love it, it can be exhausting sometimes. So much work to do, not enough time to do it. Especially because I'm alone."

Sophie turned her head to the side as they turned left down the hall. "Why are you alone? Isn't someone helping you?"

Newt shook his head. "Believe it or not, Sophie, but many witches and wizards don't care for magical creatures like you and I do. They find them danger, unable to be controlled and therefore need to be exterminated." He readjusted his case in his hand. "It is why I'm so invested in this book. I want to teach my fellow witches and wizards that magical creatures aren't to be feared, but loved. Embraced." Newt came to a stop, and Sophie was surprised to see that somehow during their discussion she hadn't even realized that they had reached her office. "As I said before, it is a dedication that not many people have. I feel it is my duty to do as much as I can for them, because they have no voice for themselves."

Sophie gave him a shy smile. "Your cause is a virtuous one, Mr Scamander. Should you find the need for someone to support it, know that you can turn to me."

The tips of Newt's ears turned red, and he lowered his head, his blond fringe covering his face. "Thank you, Miss Kingston. Should I find the need, I will turn to you."

The silence that followed was an uncomfortable one, and Newt cleared his throat as he raised his head a bit. "Well, I suppose I should leave. I have a few other errands to run before retiring for the night." Newt held his hand out to Sophie. "Thank you so much again for your help, Sophie."

Sophie's hand tingled as she grabbed Newt's. "You're welcome, Newt. I am always available to help if you need it."

The two bid each other goodbye, and Sophie found herself very sad at his departure. She opened the door to her office and stepped inside, leaning her back against the door as she thought back to Newt. His smile when he saw her, the feeling of his warm breath sending sparks down her back, her hand carefully enveloped in his...

Sophie shook her head free of the thoughts and went back over to her desk. She had just sat down when she remembered that she wanted to ask Alexandra something, but as she stood up she remembered.

Alexandra was sick. She wasn't at the Sanctuary.

Perhaps spending time with Newt Scamander had distracted her so much that it completely slipped her mind. Sophie bit her lip and tipped her head back, a growl of frustration escaping her lips.

Sophie collapsed back down into her chair and thought back to Alexandra's sickly appearance. _What illness caused one to turn green and grey?_ Sophie thought to herself as she leaned back in her chair. Perhaps she'd fetch a Healer or even a Mediwizard before she went back to Alexandra's to see how she was feeling. Maybe the Healer or Mediwizard would know what was going on with her. Sophie had no experience in medicine (she never _was_ the best Herbology student) so she thought it was best to leave that up to the professionals.

She picked up her quill and opened her notebook on Haldra. She had been delivered the notes on the dragon from one of her caretakers, so she pulled the notes to her as she flipped through the multiple pages on the temperant dragon. Haldra was one of their most tenacious Chinese Fireballs, and almost all of the paperwork that was associated with Haldra were incident reports - mostly injuries.

Sophie sighed. It was going to be a long afternoon.

* * *

 **TBC...**

 **Thank you so much for your patience and I hope you enjoyed it! This story is unlike anything I've ever tried - a completely original story, so thank you for all your support!**

 **Please review, they inspire me!**

 **REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


	5. Bowtruckle

**Disclaimer:** I do not own "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" in any way, shape, or form! I only own my OC, "Sophie Millicent Kingston" and the plot of this story!

 **Author's Note:** Sorry for not updating, but this story barely gets reviews, which causes me to be unmotivated when it comes to updates. So if you review I'll be more excited to update!

Also CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD. I'M SHOOK'D.

Also... lemme know if you guys would be interested in seeing Sophie and Newt's story continue into the movies. This story is supposed to be a prequel to the first movie, and I was actually originally planning to be done with Fanfiction soon, but because movies are a lot less high maintenance then say a TV show... I could hypothetically be able to do it. But then the problem becomes one movie is released every two years-5 movies across 10 years. Two have come out so far, and I don't know if I'll still be writing Fanfiction by then. I don't know, we'll see. If I don't end up doing the movies I still think this story is good enough to stand on its own.

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Sophie's fingers ached, but she finally dropped the pen onto her book. All of her notes on Haldra were officially finished. She felt _really_ bad for Haldra's main caretakers. Despite what had happened earlier in the day, she really lucked out with Felix.

She leaned her head back and felt a small crack in her neck, but the relief that washed over her was so sweet she didn't care. There was a knock at her door, and Sophie turned her head and called out, "Enter!"

The door opened, and two heads-one blonde one brunette-poked into the door. "Hey!" Penelope greeted excitedly, while Astra simply offered a warm smile.

Sophie laughed and waved them both in. "What are you doing here?" she wondered. She snuck a peek at the clock. "And how did you get in? Doors closed half an hour ago."

"The security goblin let us in," Astra answered as she sat down in the chair across from Sophie's desk. Penelope chose to stand and poke around her office. "And by 'let us in', I mean that Penelope tricked him while we came in through the Hungarian Horntail wing."

Sophie sharply turned her head to look at her youngest sister. "You didn't use magic, did you? Because you don't lose the Trace until-"

"I'm not stupid, sister," Penelope reminded her with a cross look on her face. "I know that the Ministry would have my head if I used magic outside of school. I simply used a trick that one of my Muggle-born friends taught me. I tossed a rock across the hall, and when he went to go investigate it, Astra and I walked right in."

Sophie looked at her other younger sister. "And you condoned this behaviour?"

Astra lifted her hands in surrender. "More like _supervised_ her behaviour. Besides, she had gone ahead and done it before I even realized it."

Sophie rolled her eyes. "You never said why you were here," she said. "Is something wrong?"

Astra cocked a brow. "We're going to the cinema, remember? That romantic movie arrived last week and you said we'd all go, as a 'sisters' night."

Sophie squeezed her eyes shut. "Right. That was tonight." She opened her eyes again. "Okay, we can still go, but I have just a couple of things to do before-"

Penelope suddenly shrieked, and Sophie and Astra both were instantly on their feet, wands drawn in the direction where Penelope had been standing. She stumbled backwards until Astra was able to grab her sister's arm and pull her back. "What? What is it?" she demanded.

"I saw something move," she whispered. She pointed to the small stand with framed pictures of Sophie and their family. "Behind there."

Astra rolled her eyes and pocketed her wand. "You probably just imagined it."

"I saw something!" she insisted. She looked over to Sophie. "Soph, I really did!"

Despite thinking that Astra was right, Sophie decided to humour her sister. She kept her wand firmly trained on the table and took small, careful steps forward. Reaching her hand out, she grabbed the picture frame of Sophie and her dad in one fluid motion and lifted it up.

Well, it turned out Penelope was right for once. There _was_ something hiding behind the picture frames. But Sophie wasn't entirely sure what this _something_ was.

It was an incredibly small green creature. Its entire body resembled a twig, with a small leaf protruding from the head and tiny twig-like fingers to match. Its tiny black beady eyes looked up at Sophie, and a sound that resembled a whimper came out of it.

Penelope's eyes glowed. "A _Bowtruckle_!"

Sophie turned her head. "A what?"

"It's a Bowtruckle!" she repeated, giddiness heavily laced in her voice. "Kettleburn taught us about them in fourth-year. It was the highest mark I got on an assignment in that class. Don't you remember learning about them?"

Now that she mentioned it, the longer that Sophie looked at the Bowtruckle, the more the memory of Sophie standing in her fourth-year Care of Magical Creatures tugged at the back of her brain. "Bowtruckle," she repeated softly. She bent down at the knees and slowly reached her hand out. Not in a claw-like way, but hand completely flat and palm facing up, as if telling the Bowtruckle she meant no harm.

"I'm not sure what one is doing in Romania, though," Penelope mused, tilting her head to the side. "They're native to Southern Germany."

"Perhaps that means he's domesticated?" Astra offered, taking a small step towards the Bowtruckle. "I mean, he hasn't run away at the sight of humans. Perhaps someone owns it."

Sophie's hand was now right in front of the Bowtruckle. She kept her hand completely still, so as to not frighten the creature. After a few seconds, the Bowtruckle took the tiniest step towards Sophie's hand, before sniffing her fingers.

Sophie knew what she would smell if she sniffed her own fingers-lavender hand cream, metal, and the faintest trace of dirt. But when the Bowtruckle sniffed her fingers, she knew he was trying to determine if she was trustworthy or not.

After what felt like ages, the Bowtruckle finally lifted its tiny legs and shuffled so that he crawled on top of Sophie's hand. The spider-like legs almost instinctively made her drop him, but she kept her hand firmly still as she stood up completely. The Bowtruckle sat down in her hand and stared up at her in wonder.

"How did you get here, little one?" Sophie thought aloud as she looked down at him. "I know you're not going to answer, but it's still a thought. Did you come here with someone?"

More whimpering noises. She pouted and looked up at her sister. "Perhaps I should've specialized in Bowtruckles instead of dragons."

"Well, are you going to take him to the Ministry?" Astra wondered. "The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures should be able to take care of him, if they can't track down an owner or something."

As if he understood Astra's words, the Bowtruckle immediately wrapped his arms around Sophie's thumb and clung onto it. More tiny whimpering came out of him, and he shook his small head, the little leaf at the top swaying.

One look at the poor creature's despair and Sophie made up her mind. "I can't. If I drop him off at the Ministry, who knows what they'll do with him. The last thing they'll do is spent time and resources trying to track down his owner. They'll probably end up sending him to Durmstrang or Hogwarts to be used in Care of Magical Creatures classes, and then he'll never be reunited with his owner."

The Bowtruckle visibly relaxed against Sophie's fingers, and the sensation tickled her hand. She smiled down at him. "I'll take care of him until I can find his owner."

"How?" Penelope asked. "You've literally never seen him around before."

"Exactly!" Sophie gushed. "He's only shown up now, which means he came with someone who's been here recently. I think Adrian just returned from a visit to Germany-perhaps this little fella tagged along. I'll ask around, see what I can find. At the very least I can't leave the poor thing here by himself. Who knows what'll happen to him."

"So you're just going to bring him home?" Penelope wondered, looking down at him with a bit of skepticism.

Sophie rolled her eyes. "Relax Pen, he's not going to steal your bedroom. He'll stay with me until I can figure something out."

"Alright, if that's what you think," she said, holding her hands up. "Can we please go to the cinema now? The film should be starting soon."

Sophie rolled her eyes but nodded. "Let me gather my things. At the very least I can get some work down at home after the film." She gently lowered her hand onto the desk so the Bowtruckle could jump off and wait while she collected her things (she couldn't very well do it with one hand), but he refused to budge. She held her hand out for about ten seconds, but when he turned his head and looked up at Sophie, it became very clear that he wasn't going to let her go. With a small smile, Sophie raised her hand to her shoulder. "Alright, then. If you insist on staying close to me, at least stay somewhere where I can have access to both hands."

The Bowtruckle happily jumped from Sophie's hand to her shoulder, grabbing onto her earlobe. It tickled her and sent a shiver down her spine, but she recovered quickly and put some folders into her bag. The last thing she did was grab her engagement ring from her drawer and slip it back on, earning her a strange look from her sisters, but they were wise enough to keep their mouths shut and turn the other way.

Sophie swung the strap over her other shoulder and with that, the three Kingston sisters left the office, one companion heavier.

* * *

Sophie was utterly exhausted after the film (which she had to admit was rather good, for a film that Penelope had chosen) but she still had a lot of work to do, so when they got home and her sisters both started to fight for the bathroom to get ready for bed, Sophie went straight to her bedroom and shut the door behind her.

The Bowtruckle had stayed faithfully quiet during the entire film, only making whimpering noises every now and then. However, when they left the theatre and prepared to Apparate home, he started to get more and more whiny and irritable, and Sophie didn't know why.

She shrugged her blazer off and draped it over the back of her desk chair. She put her hand next to her shoulder, and the Bowtruckle grumpily moved from her shoulder to her hand. She put her hand down onto her desk, and he crawled off. She sat down in the chair and stared at him. "Alright. What is it you want?"

He stared back up at her, making more grumpy faces. "I'm a dragonologist, not a Bowtruckle specialist. I can't help you unless you can indicate what I can do for you."

He blew a raspberry at her, and Sophie couldn't help but drop her jaw in confusion. She had no idea Bowtruckles could have such a temper! Perhaps she should've paid more attention during the lesson in Kettleburn's class.

The Bowtruckle stood up and looked around his surroundings. He froze, and a tiny squeak emitted from his body. Before she knew it, the Bowtruckle was running towards the vase with the roses she had received from John she had on her desk. He climbed the glass vase with ease and swung himself forward until he grabbed onto the leaf. Once he sat on top properly, he opened his little mouth and chomped down. What looked like relief flooded his face as he chewed, and he gulped noisily before tearing off another chunk.

Sophie tilted her head to the side as she watched him eat. "Well, I suppose that makes sense. Appropriate too, though it does feel a little bit like cannibalism." She shook her head and stood up. She changed into a pair of pajamas before bringing her bag over to her desk and settling in for the night.

The Bowtruckle, at this point, he finished his meal (consisting of the leaves of two roses), and he sat on the desk with an enlarged belly. Sophie could just picture him rubbing his stomach with relish. She couldn't help but smile at the image.

Okay. Time to get some work done.

Getting work done didn't seem like it was going to happen because the Bowtruckle climbed on top of the back of Sophie's hand and tickled it. Sophie tilted her hand to the side so that the Bowtruckle would know to get off, and he made a face before sliding off with another whine. "I'm sorry," Sophie said to him. "But I have to get this done. Once I do that I can start thinking about how to track down your owner." She rested her chin in her hand. "Where _did_ you come from, I wonder?"

The Bowtruckle didn't answer. Instead, he began to carve into Sophie's wooden desk with his tiny twig fingers. Sophie wanted to chastise him and tell him to stop, but the grooves weren't that deep, and she felt bad for the poor thing for being separated from his family, and if itmeant he wasn't bothering her anymore, she let him carve away.

She glanced over at him a little while later to see him lying on his side. Without her even realizing it, the Bowtruckle had fallen asleep. It made a small noise that filled the air. It was like a snore, but more high pitched. Sophie smiled at him. He had to be tired from the exhausting day he'd had.

She looked down at the file in front of her that had Magnus' name scrawled at the top. She looked back over to the Bowtruckle. "I wonder if you have a name," she whispered mostly to herself. She didn't want to wake him up, but if he really was a domesticated creature, he had to have had a name. If not, perhaps Sophie should give him one.

She shut the thought down right away. Naming him would create an attachment, which would make it a hundred times harder when she found his owner and had to hand him over. Once, when she was a girl, a rabbit had wandered into their yard. Sophie immediately formed a bond with him and named him Harry, because he was a hairy creature. She spent the whole day with him, feeding him pieces of bread and playing with him. It amazed her how connected she felt to the creature, and she was ready for him to be her lifelong friend.

But then her parents came home from work, and while Matthew was willing to let Sophie keep the rabbit, her mother forced her to go to the park and let the thing go free. It broke Sophie's heart and so cried so earnestly that her father took pity on her and offered to take the creature to the park himself to spare Sophie the pain. She cried and hugged him, promising never to forget him, and then she handed Harry over to her dad. She immediately locked herself in her room and cried for hours. She refused to speak to her mother for two weeks because of it.

The painful memory tugged on her heart, and she decided then and there that she couldn't name the Bowtruckle. She already felt a tiny thread of attachment to him, and that was bad enough. Naming him would just make it even worse.

But even after she made that decision and after Sophie had packed her things away to have them ready for work the next morning, she pulled out a handkerchief from her sidetable drawer and draped it over him. She crawled into bed herself and closed her eyes, sleep coming much easier.

* * *

Sophie accidentally slept in the next morning, so she frantically ran around her bedroom like a tornado getting ready for work. At the last second she remembered the Bowtruckle, and while it was probably a better idea for him to stay home (the less time spent with him, the less attachment she'd make to him) it was probably an even worse idea to leave him at home to the mercy of her mother in case she found out. Thea Kingston wasn't one for magical creatures, which was another reason why she wasn't all that pleased with Sophie's decision to work with some of the most dangerous creatures in the world.

The Bowtruckle was awake at that point, so she held out her hand for him to crawl up her sleeve. She expected him to sit on her shoulder like he had done the day before, but instead he hopped into her coat breast pocket, settling in nicely and disappearing under it. Sophie thought it was a bit strange, but she just shook her head and walked out her bedroom door.

She barreled down the stairs and into the kitchen where Astra was just finishing putting fried eggs on the table. She frowned at Sophie's ruggedness. "You're running late," she said, though not like a question.

Sophie gave her sister a look. "Yes, I'm aware. I stayed up late and ending up oversleeping. It happens sometimes." She glanced down at the mouthwatering display, but shook her head. "I haven't the time to eat."

"Will you at least take some for the road?" Astra asked, but even before Sophie could answer she had already started making a breakfast sandwich consisting of a fried egg, two slices of tomato, and ketchup. She wrapped it up into plastic wrap and handed it to Sophie. "Here."

"Thanks," Sophie said as she took the sandwich. She pecked Astra's cheek and was about to run out the door when she realized something. She paused and spun on her heel. "Where's Mum? And Penelope, for that matter? They should both be awake and shopping for Penelope's school supplies."

"Oh, Mum went to buy Penelope's supplies on her own," Astra replied. She carried the dirty dishes over to the sink. "Penelope wasn't feeling well this morning."

Sophie made a face. "Not even good enough to get out of bed? That's not like Pen."

"She's sick, Soph," Astra reasoned. She turned on the tap. "Maybe she was just feeling poorly."

"When has feeling poorly ever stopped Penelope from doing anything?" Sophie asked. "Remember when she was in third-year? The Quidditch final between Gryffindor and Slytherin?"

The corner of Astra's lips perked up. "She had the flu, but she didn't want to miss it. She held it in for an hour before puking all over the Seeker when he flew past her." She shook her head and turned around to face Sophie. "She's a true Gryffindor, all right."

Sophie looked over her shoulder at the stairs. "What kind of illness is it? Does she just have a stomachache or something?"

"I don't know; it's strange," Astra responded. She wiped her hands on a towel. "She was awfully pale, but she had a hint of orange around her lips."

Sophie froze, and she looked over her shoulder at her sister. "Was her face green and grey?"

Astra nodded. "Yes. How did you know?"

Sophie just set her bag down and went up the stairs. She cautiously walked over to Penelope and Astra's bedroom. Could it be?

Her pocket shifted, and the Bowtruckle peeked his head over the pocket. He looked up at her, and Sophie swore she saw him give her a worrying look. She softly patted her breast pocket in an attempt to calm him and turned her attention back to Penelope's bedroom.

She was about to grab the doorknob when her hand froze, hovering above the handle. She pulled her sleeve over her hand and balled the material into a fist so it covered her whole land. Then she rested her hand on the knob and slowly turned it.

She carefully opened the door, making as little noise as possible. Penelope's bed was right beside the door, so Sophie just had to turn her head to the right to see her sister in bed.

And her suspicions were confirmed at the sweaty green and grey complexion on Penelope's face. Her back was to Sophie, but Sophie could still see the colouring on her face. Penelope lifted her head a bit, and then slowly turned her body so that she faced Sophie, and the telltale orange colouring circled her lips. "Sophie?" she whispered, her voice hoarse.

"Penelope," Sophie said, and she resisted the urge to sit on her bed for fear of whatever she had to be contagious. It had to be, if initially Alexandra had it and now Penelope. "What's happened?"

"I don't know," Penelope responded. She swallowed thickly. "I just woke up this morning and couldn't move. Mum said she'd bring home a Mediwizard when she returned from shopping."

Sophie wanted to feel Penelope's forehead for a temperature, but again, she didn't want to catch what Penelope had. And just judging by the sweat that pooled on her forehead and slipped down her temples, she knew her body was overheating. "Well, I'll come home a bit early," she promised. "I can help take care of you."

Penelope nodded weakly before turning her head and resting it on her pillow. Sophie almost had a heart attack at the action, but when she saw Penelope's chest rising and falling, she knew she had just fallen asleep.

Despite not wanting to leave her sister, Sophie forced herself to step out of the room. She shut the door tightly behind her and walked back down the stairs.

Astra held out Sophie's bag to her, along with a smaller bag that probably contained a delicious lunch. "Don't worry; I'm staying home to look after her. I sent Daniela an owl earlier this morning to let her know, and she agreed to take over the manager duties for today. I might have to pop in closer to the end of the afternoon, though."

"That's fine," Sophie said. "Mum should be home by then, and I'll try to come home early tonight as well."

"All right," Astra replied with a smile. "Go on. You'll be late."

Sophie said a quick goodbye to her sister before speeding out the door. She ran to an alley at the end of the street and ducked into it, immediately Apparating as soon as she did so.

She appeared in the front of the Sanctuary within seconds, but Sophie knew as soon as she stepped through the doors that there would only be one thing on her mind today, and it was not going to be dragons.

* * *

 **TBC...**

 **Sooooooo here's where the mystery starts! I know Newt wasn't in this chapter, but we get Pickett! And Newt will be back next chapter and it's gonna be gooooood (*insert shifty eye emoji here*).**

 **Please leave reviews, they motivate me!**

 **REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


	6. Scamander vs Williams

**Disclaimer:** I do not own "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" in any way, shape, or form! I only own my OC, "Sophie Millicent Kingston" and the plot of this story!

 **Author's Note:** Next chapter comin' at you! Also, I smell trouble at the chapter title (*insert shifty-eye emoji here*)

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

She should be working. Sophie _knew_ she should be working, but after she got to her office and took her ring off and even went so far as to open her books, all she could do was sit in her chair and watch the Bowtruckle explore her desk. Sophie had brought in a few leaves from outside for him to munch on, but he mostly just alternated between sitting down and carving into her desk, which was something she should really stop him from doing.

Alexandra was sick. Then Penelope became sick. Both girls had the same illness. What could it be?

According to Alexandra, whom Sophie was keeping in contact with via owl, she still wasn't all that better, but not to worry about her. Alexandra's mother arrived to take care of her until she recovered.

Sophie felt like she just wanted to be home when her mother returned with the Mediwizard. There was something wrong with her baby sister, and she wanted to do everything she could to help her. It felt wrong being at work when her sister was ill with something Sophie had never even seen before. Astra promised to send an owl as soon as she knew anything, but it still wasn't enough for Sophie.

She _should_ be doing her afternoon rounds and checking on the Chinese Fireballs, but she couldn't even bring herself to get up from her desk. Instead, she sent a house-elf with a message to tell Vasile to do the rounds in her place and just report to her with the results.

A little while later, the Bowtruckle suddenly stopped its crunching on a leaf and scrambled up Sophie's arm. She gazed down at him with a concerned look on her face as he slid into the side pocket of her blazer, but her unspoken question was answered when she heard footsteps outside her door.

There was a knock at the door, and when Sophie voiced her permission, it swung open to reveal Cristina, four folders in her hands. "Hello Miss Kingston," she greeted with a smile as she stopped in front of Sophie's desk. She held out the pile. "This is for you. It's this afternoon's report on the Chinese Fireballs."

Sophie knitted her brows together and looked up at Cristina. "I asked Andren to tell Vasile to bring me the reports."

"Yes, I know," Cristina responded, a sheepish expression crossing her face. "But Vasile isn't here, so Ana-Maria collected the information herself."

Sophie's eyes bugged out of her head. "You mean the _intern_ Ana-Maria?!" she demanded, trying not to let her temper flare up even more than it was already threatening to. Sophie _never_ left something as crucial as collecting the information for afternoon rounds to the interns, especially Ana-Maria, who was nearly torched once because she didn't read the instructions that declared that Cassian wasn't to be disturbed before lunchtime.

"He wasn't feeling well, so he sent an owl to say that he wasn't going to come in today," Cristina answered.

Sophie paused with her hand on the folders, and she tightened her grip, causing them to bend a bit. "What kind of illness?" she asked tightly.

Cristina shrugged. "Don't know. He didn't say." She let go of the files and backed up. "I've got to get back to the desk."

Sophie rested the folders on the desk as Cristina left the room. She chewed on a nail, a nasty habit her mother declared was not fit for a young lady, and the Bowtruckle poked his head out from her pocket. He gazed up at her, and Sophie looked down at him.

"Yes, I know something's not right," she told him, and she shook her head when she remembered that the Bowtruckle wasn't actually going to speak. "But Vasile is sick, Alexandra's sick, and so is Penelope. What is going on?"

Just then, there was a knock at the door, and the Bowtruckle immediately dipped back into her pocket. She gently patted her pocket again before turning her attention back to the door. "Enter!"

The door opened and in walked Newt, who looked a little more frantic and unkempt than usual, which was saying something. His hair stuck out in all different directions (as opposed to looking messy and sticking in one direction), and he had dark bags under his eyes that suggested he hadn't slept at all last night. He had his trusty suitcase in his hand, and he accidentally banged it against the door. He whispered a soft apology to the case that Sophie pretended not to notice as he turned his attention to her. "Good morning, Sophie," he said, but he might as well have said it to the walls because that was where he was looking. His eyes hurriedly scanned the table, desk, the corners of the room and any nook and cranny he could see. "How are you?"

Sophie eyed his disheveled appearance. "Better than you, I would assume," she responded, and he finally stopped in his searching as his eyes landed on her. "Is there something wrong, Newt?"

"No, nothing wrong," he assured her, though by the rushed tone in his voice Sophie knew he meant the complete opposite. "I just thought I left something in here the other day, but then I remembered I didn't actually step into your office when we came to get the keys to the pens of the Fireballs, but then I supposed I should check just in case-"

"Newt, Newt, Newt!" Sophie said as she stood up and walked over to him. She held her hands up and gestured for him to calm down. "Relax. Whatever you've lost I'm sure we'll find it." She rested her arms against her side. "Now. What is it that you're looking for?"

Newt's eyes once again circled the entire room before landing on Sophie. His eyes brightened as he said, "You."

Sophie's pulse skyrocketed, and her face burned. "Excuse me?" she squeaked, her heart hammering.

Quickly, however, she realized that Newt's eyes weren't on her specifically, but lower on her body-specifically, her pocket. Her eyes traveled down as well to see the Bowtruckle peeking out of her pocket, his hands gripping the lining of the pocket. The Bowtruckle smiled and chirped before launching himself out of Sophie's pocket and into Newt's outstretched hand.

Newt grinned as he raised his hand eye level. "Pickett! Thank goodness! Oh, I'm so sorry," he said to the Bowtruckle-err, Pickett. "I swear I looked away from my pocket for only a second when I realized you weren't there." At the look on Pickett's face that told Newt that he was still not impressed, Newt added, "And I've been looking all night for you."

Pickett made a noise of disapproval, and Newt gave him a look. "I said I was sorry, didn't I? Besides, it's your own fault. How many times do I have to tell you to stay inside my pocket?"

Another noise from Pickett, and Newt shook his head at him. "Don't give me that attitude. You know perfectly well what the rules are and you broke them. You cannot blame me for you getting lost when it happened because you refused to follow the rules."

Pickett blew a raspberry at Newt before turning his back on him. It even looked like the creature had crossed his arms like a toddler having a tantrum.

Newt opened his mouth to say something to Pickett when Sophie finally decided to interrupt. "Uh, Newt?" she said, and he looked up at her. She glanced down at Pickett. "Why do you have a Bowtruckle? And why does he live in your pocket? I thought Bowtruckles were native only to Southern Germany."

"Oh no, we have them in England as well," he responded. "He lives in my pocket because he refuses to live inside-" He suddenly cut himself off, as if he realized that he was about to tell Sophie something he should not be.

But Sophie pressed, because she wanted to know. "Inside where?" she asked.

"In-inside..." Newt stammered, and his eyes landed on the small plant that Sophie had beside her window. "Inside his tree!" he finished brightly, looking back over at Sophie. He calmed himself a bit at the bewildered look on her face. He cleared his throat. "He refuses to live inside his tree back in England. So he comes around with me. Part of my research."

"Oh," Sophie said, and though she wanted to press further because even _she_ could tell that Newt wasn't telling the whole truth, she decided to leave it-for now. "Well, he was here in my office last night. He must've gotten left behind somehow and decided not to leave. I took him home last night, so he wasn't here by himself."

Newt's eyes softened at Sophie's answer, and she felt her ears redden at the look. "Thank you," he said sincerely. "Pickett-he doesn't like being alone. It was very kind of you to do so."

"Well," Sophie said, trying her best to control her blush. "I'm not just a lover of dragons, Newt. All creatures have value to me, and I couldn't leave the little guy on his own."

"It seems like Pickett likes you," Newt said enthusiastically, looking down at the Bowtruckle-who still refused to look at him. "He doesn't stay out of my pocket much in the presence of strangers. He must've taken a liking to you," he finished, looking up at Sophie. His eyes lingered on her face, and he was quiet for a few seconds longer than necessary.

Sophie gulped. "I've taken a liking to him too," she responded, though she didn't mean the Bowtruckle as much as she meant...someone else. She shook her head free of the thoughts and glanced back down at the green creature in Newt's hand. "Even if he does carve into every desk of mine that he sees."

"Yes, I've been meaning to speak to him about that," Newt answered, looking back down at Pickett. "Come on, Pickett," he pleaded, bringing his hand closer to his chest. "Look at me. Please?"

After a few seconds, Pickett peeked over his shoulder at Newt. Newt gave him a pair of what Sophie could only describe as the Muggle expression "puppy-dog eyes"-one that always worked on Sophie's father-and Pickett's annoyed expression relaxed. With a smile on his face, Newt brought his hand up to his breast pocket, and Pickett hopped right inside, snuggling down and disappearing.

Newt looked back up at Sophie and immediately wrinkled his nose in distaste. Sophie's chest tightened and her mind raced at the possibilities of what could be wrong with her face-goodness, she hoped that she didn't have ketchup or yolk on her lips-but the only thing that Newt said was, "Something's wrong."

"Excuse me?" Sophie asked, honestly confused. She eventually did raise a hand to her face.

"No, there's nothing _on_ your face," Newt assured her, and her blood pressure turned to a normal level as she sighed and dropped her hand. "But... but there's something wrong, isn't there?"

She'd only known Newt for a few days-how could he already read her so well? Sophie opened her mouth and prepared to tell Newt not to worry about it, but at the look of the genuine concern on his face, her chest deflated and she sighed. "It's my sister," she responded, walking back over to her desk.

"You have a sister?" he asked as he sat down in the chair opposite her desk.

"Two," she confirmed, collapsing into her chair. "Astra and Penelope. I'm the oldest, Astra in the middle, and Penelope's the youngest. Anyways, Penelope was sick this morning."

"So?" Newt asked bluntly. "People get sick. I mean, I don't get sick that often, but I do know that that is an expression people use."

"Yes it is," Sophie acknowledged, though she drawled the words out as if she wasn't sure if she should actually be saying them. She shook her head and continued on. "She has this...illness. I've never seen it before nor have I ever heard of it. She's pale, and her face is green and grey and the area around her lips is orange."

Newt scrunched up his face at the image. "Ew," he said, and he quickly changed into an apologetic expression. "I'm sorry, sometimes I tend to say things without really thinking about it first."

"That's alright," Sophie assured him, and Newt relaxed. "It _was_ pretty disgusting. But the strange thing is, I saw the same symptoms in Alexandra, my best friend," she told him. "But Alexandra had those symptoms first. And now one of my employees has taken ill."

"Is it with the same disease?" Newt wondered.

"I don't know. He didn't say."

"Well, until you know for sure that it is the same disease, this might not be a real problem," Newt suggested. "One person is strange, two is a little stranger, but more than two is stranger still."

"Um, firstly, I don't think that's how the expression goes," Sophie explained lightly, and Newt made a face as if he were saying, "Ah, got it". "And secondly, this isn't just some random bout of the flu, Newt." She leaned forward on her desk. "This _feels_ different. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but it just does." She leaned even closer. "I think I need some help in figuring it out."

Newt nodded thoughtfully but didn't answer. Sophie held her hands out in a gesture that said, "Are you going to answer?", but Newt just kept staring at her. Eventually Sophie had to verbally ask, "Will you help me, Newt?"

"Oh!" Newt drawled, as if realizing just now that that was what Sophie had been asking all along. He ran a hand through his messy hair, scratching his scalp. "Ah, well, I suppose so. I'm not sure how much help I'll be to you, though."

"That's fine," Sophie answered. "Any help is better than nothing." She reached over and grabbed Newt's hand, giving it a grateful squeeze. "Thank you."

All of a sudden, someone threw her office door open, and Sophie immediately dropped Newt's hand at the action. She and Newt both turned their attention to the door, and Sophie's stomach dropped all the way to the ground when she recognized John standing in her doorway.

Oh no. Why? Of all days, why did John choose _today_ to stop by? He didn't even _like_ coming to the Sanctuary! He said it reminded him too much of a barn, and Sophie had had to restrain herself from retorting that it sort of was, because they held livestock.

She abruptly stood up, and Newt did the same, though he did it a bit more shakily. His hand instinctively tightened on his suitcase, and one of the latches became undone. Without looking, he reached down and secured it.

Sophie looked over at John, who seemed only to be staring at Newt. She then looked back over to Newt, who was awkwardly shuffling in place and was trying to look anywhere _but_ John. She cleared her throat and walked over to her fiancé. "Hi," she greeted sweetly, as if she hadn't been doing anything wrong, which, technically, she hadn't been. "What are you doing here?"

"We were supposed to have dinner, remember?" he said, but he barely took his attention off of Newt.

Sophie discreetly took a step in front of John so that he was forced to look at her, and she could practically _feel_ Newt relax behind her. "I'm sorry, I forgot. I have to get home to Penelope-she's not feeling well."

"Oh, I just came from the house," John revealed. "Your mum sent me an owl to tell me what was going on. I went to visit her, and Penelope seems better."

"Really?" Sophie brightened. "I should go home and see for myself-"

"You can still do that after dinner," he reminded her. He reached out and took one of her hands. "We've barely seen each other this week, Soph. I want to spend some time with you."

Sophie opened and closed her mouth a few times before deciding to change the subject altogether. She carefully pulled her hand back from John and turned so that she could see Newt. "Newt, this is John Williams," she introduced, purposefully leaving out John's relation to her. "John, this is Newt Scamander, the man I told you about?"

"Right," John stretched the word as he gave Newt a once-over. Newt stayed in his spot and still didn't look at John, but John held his hand out. "Pleasure to meet you, Mr Scamander."

Newt eyed John's hand before flickering his gaze up at Sophie. She discreetly nodded her head, and Newt put his hand in John's. The two men firmly shook, but Newt still avoided John's gaze as he let go and said, "Nice to meet you as well, Mr Williams."

John put his hands in his pockets and his next words made Sophie's heart stop. "How do you know my fiancée?"

Newt finally snapped his head up and looked John in the eye. "Fiancée?" he repeated, and he turned his head to look at Sophie.

It was almost like a look of devastation, and it delivered such a blow to Sophie's stomach she thought she was going to be sick. She knew the fiancée comment was an attempt by John to get ahead of Newt in Sophie's eyes, though Sophie had no idea _why_ because she was engaged-regrettably, especially in this moment-to _John_ , not Newt. And it wasn't _exactly_ like Sophie was trying to hide the fact that she was engaged from Newt. She just never brought it up, especially because they hadn't really discussed their personal lives. Besides, Newt _had_ to have figured it out when he saw the ring on her-

Sophie's eyes widened with realization, and she looked down at her bare left finger. Her heart stumbled when she remembered that she had only ever seen Newt at the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary, and the first thing she always did when she arrived to work was take her engagement ring off. It had just become a normal thing to her, even to the staff who worked with her, but for someone like Newt, an outsider, he'd have no idea.

She looked back up at Newt, but words still failed her. She waited a few seconds and prayed that the words came, but they didn't, and she just stood there awkwardly gaping like a fish.

Thankfully-or not so thankfully-John stepped in. "Yes, fiancée," he confirmed. "Our wedding is in a couple of weeks."

"Oh," Newt said as neutrally as possible. Sophie knew he was trying to keep his surprise in, because, well, Newt Scamander wasn't the best at trying to keep his true emotions concealed, but when he did, it was awfully awkward.

"Newt..." she started, but Newt interrupted her.

"Sorry, I just remembered, I have somewhere to be," he said, looking away from Sophie. He adjusted his coat and his case in his hand. "Nice to meet you again, Mr Williams," he told John, though he kept his attention on the spot in between Sophie and John.

Sophie waited for him to say goodbye or even just look at her, but he just awkwardly nodded his head and walked towards the middle space between them. They both stepped aside so that Newt could walk out of the office, and Sophie's chest tightened in despair as she watched his retreating back.

He was almost halfway down the hallway when she suddenly found her voice again. She stepped out of her office and chased after him. He stopped when he heard the clacking of her heels behind him, but he didn't turn around. "Newt..." she started, and she considered all of the things she could say to him next. _It's not what you think. It's complicated. I can explain. Please let me explain_. But none of the options seemed appropriate, especially where the two currently stood, so instead the words that came out of her mouth were, "You'll still be helping me, right?"

Newt turned slightly so that he barely glanced at Sophie. "I'm sorry, I have somewhere to be," he simply repeated, and Sophie's entire body threatened to sink into the floor. He turned around again and walked away, turning at the end of the hall and disappearing.

Everything in her wanted to call out to him. But why? And what would she say? She didn't owe him an explanation. She didn't owe Newt Scamander anything. So how come she felt like someone had stabbed her in the chest at the way he had looked at her when he found out she was actually engaged? How come, despite the fact that John was in the vicinity, did she want to run after Newt and explanation the reason why she was really marrying John?

It didn't matter to Newt. It _shouldn't_ matter to Newt. _Did_ it matter to Newt? Did she want it to matter to him?

"What was that about?" she heard over her shoulder, and she turned her head to glare at John. "What?" he said at the look on her face.

When she didn't respond, he asked instead, "Ready for dinner?"

* * *

 **TBC...**

 **Until next time lovelies!**

 **Please please leave reviews! They motivate me!**

 **REVIEW RESPONSES:**

 **untilmynextstory:** Hi! That's an idea to think about as well. And thank you very much! The new movie has really kicked started my inspiration, and I've deleted some chapters and merged a few to make this story shorter and tighter so hopefully I can finish it sooner because I really want to finish it! And go for it! The world could always use a few more of those, and while I love Newtina, I also love Newt/OCs, and they're so hard to find, especially well written ones (in terms of character and story AND grammar).

 **WriteToEscapeReality1309:** Thank you! I'm trying to be as realistic as possible for the time period, which is why it would've been scandalous. And I think they're very cute too! There's a chapter that's coming up where I'm planning for them to be very very cute and I'm so excited for it! ALSO BIG DICK ENERGY I NEVER THOUGHT OF IT LIKE THAT BUT WHERE IS THE LIE LOL.

 **Blackrose3107:** Thanks! I'm also planning on seeing it, especially because the first time I saw it I was so distracted by picturing Sophie there and wondering what she would do LOL.

 **Kawaiibirdie24:** Thank you! I hope so as well! Updates might be a little tricky because of my school schedule (exams are coming fast!) but I do have the next chapter prewritten so depending on if I can get chapter eight written sooner rather than later (and depending on how many reviews I receive) I'll be holding on to it for a little while.

 **.2018:** Thank you very much!

 **Starangel5593:** Thank you! We'll see if I do the movies with them, but like untilmynextstory suggested, I could do some one-shots or something. It all depends really.

 **REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


	7. Date Night

**Disclaimer:** I do not own "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" in any way, shape, or form! I only own my OC, "Sophie Millicent Kingston" and the plot of this story!

 **Author's Note:** That next chapter might take a little bit, but bear with me!

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Sophie really didn't want to go on their date, but she figured that John wouldn't shut up about it, so she walked beside him on their way to the restaurant that he had booked reservations at.

She was barely paying attention to whatever he was going on about. She kept thinking about the look on Newt's face when he found out she was actually engaged. That... that _devastated_ look on his face. It almost seemed ridiculous to call it devastation, but Sophie couldn't think of any other word to use. She felt as bad as Newt had looked-perhaps even _worse_ , because she was the one actually getting married.

She shook her head and tried to think about something else other than Newt Scamander. She curled her fingers in her pockets, and for a second she almost drew her hand away as her heart skipped a beat. She almost hurt-

She glanced down at her pocket. Her empty pocket.

That was right. Pickett wasn't there anymore. She had only had him for a day, but she already missed his presence. It was sort of nice, never being alone. Knowing that someone was always there. But Pickett was back to being with his owner. Newt.

So much for thinking about something _other_ than Newt.

As if he could read her thoughts, John said, "That Scamander fellow was a strange one."

Her head snapped over to him as he held open the door to the restaurant for her. "You don't know him," she automatically defended.

He looked at her oddly, but she simply lifted her chin and walked into the restaurant. "Yes, I suppose I don't," he agreed. "But do you?"

Sophie didn't get the chance to answer because the hostess had arrived and led them to their reserved seat. She resigned herself to dropping the topic and draped her coat over her chair. She sat down in the chair and picked up the menu, opening so that it blocked John's face.

"So," John started as he opened his own menu. "The wedding's in two weeks. Can you believe it?"

 _No_ , she thought to herself, but she forced herself to smile, and even then it was weak. "It's been fast," she instead acknowledged.

John grinned at her, and for a second, Sophie felt incredibly guilty. Here she was, thinking about another man while on a date with a fiancé that she didn't love. She opened her mouth, ready to spill everything, when John suddenly asked, "How was work?"

His question snapped Sophie back into attention, and she cleared her throat before answering. "Good," she replied, closing her menu after she had made her choice. "Nothing really exciting happened. Except, of course, Newt stopped by. He was actually looking for Pickett."

"Pickett?" he wondered.

"Oh, his Bowtruckle," she supplied. "He had accidentally left him behind at my office yesterday. I found Pickett, took him home, and then brought him back to the office in hopes that I could find his owner. I didn't think that it was Newt, but all's well that ends well, I suppose."

"Bowtruckle?" John mused, scratching at his growing beard. Sophie only hoped that he'd shave it before the wedding. Because the thought of him kissing her with that scruff... She shuddered at the thought. "That's a type of magical creature, isn't it?"

"Yes," Sophie responded. "Pickett loves to carve into wood, but he's an absolute sweetheart."

"Do you know if Mr Scamander has a license to bring magical creatures into Romania?" John asked.

Sophie didn't like the question in his tone. "No, I don't," she replied slowly. "Why? Is that a problem?"

"Well, if he's bringing these creatures here illegally-"

"Don't even think about it," Sophie broke in. "If you're going to report him to the Ministry-"

"Why do you care so much?" John demanded, and Sophie could hear the suspicion in his tone. "Why does it matter to you if Newt Scamander gets into trouble?"

"Because he's my friend," Sophie answered, and she was proud of the fact that her voice didn't shake. "He's a wonderful person. And he needs to finish this research that he's doing for his book and I don't want to be the person that jeopardizes that."

"You've known the man for all of three days," John reminded her. "How do you know how wonderful he is?"

"Because I've _seen_ him!" she replied, and she had to remind herself that they were in the middle of a crowded restaurant. "I've seen how he acts. He's a bit awkward, yes, but that doesn't mean he's bad or suspicious. In fact, it's quite endearing." She smiled a little bit at the end.

That smile disappeared, however, at the look on John's face. "What?" she demanded. "What is it?"

"Nothing," Jon grumbled, leaning back in his seat. "I just... I've never heard you speak about me like that before, and I'm your fiancé."

Sophie's jaw dropped. While she was shocked at the implication of what he was saying and while it hurt a bit, it was mostly because... he was right. Sophie couldn't remember the last time she had spoken so glowingly of John. If she had _ever_ spoken so glowingly of John, in fact.

Still, she didn't like what he was suggesting about her character. "If you're insinuating what I think you are..." she began, keeping her tone tight and even.

"The only thing I'm saying is what's so great about Newt Scamander?" he said. "The man seems awfully strange."

The words were tumbling out of Sophie before she could stop them. "How about the fact that he actually _listens_ to me?" she asked. Newt not only listened to her, but even after knowing her for only a few days he could read her, which wasn't easily considering Sophie didn't like to think of herself as an open book. He knew something was bothering her right away when he stopped by her office. That was the kind of thing that people didn't learn unless they really understood her. And somehow... Newt did.

John's eyes widened. "I... I _listen_ to you."

Sophie shook her head in disbelief. "No, you _don't_ , John. You hear me speak, but you don't _listen_."

"Yes, I do!" he insisted, leaning forward.

She leaned back in her seat. "What type of dragon do I take care of?"

John sat up straight. "Excuse me?"

"What's the name of the dragon whom I am primarily responsible for?" she asked next.

John licked his lips. "You-you haven't-"

"Yes I have," she cut him off. "I've mentioned it more than once. Or were you not listening?"

Before John could say anything else, Sophie said, "I, on the other hand, know that back in London when you worked for the British Ministry of Magic, you were in the Magical Law Enforcement Department, working as an Auror. The first criminal that you captured was called Rufus Collinsburry and you arrested him by using the Stupefy charm while he was trying to torture two young girls." She sat up straight. "I know everything about your job, but you know nothing of mine."

"Your job is-" he started, and judging by the tone of his voice the next thing out of his mouth was going to be "too dangerous", so Sophie cut in again.

"Everything to me," she finished for him. "My job is _everything_ to me. You may not think I'm doing something important, John, but I _am_. There is nothing I look forward to more when I wake up in the morning than to go to work and see my beloved dragons, even if at any moment they could turn on me and burn my face. It is what I _love_ , and I don't intend on giving it up after marriage. I'm not the kind of person who can just sit at home and take care of children, John. I'm the type of person that wants to see the world and experience new things, and I need a partner who wants those things just as much as I do."

John heaved a deep breath. "So what are you saying?"

 _I don't want to marry you_ , she thought, but the words wouldn't come out. She wanted to say them so badly, but they wouldn't come out of her mouth. She wasn't sure why. He was giving her an opportunity as well. But she just couldn't say it.

"I..." she stammered, before pushing herself away from the table and standing up. "I have to go home," she finished lamely.

John stood up as well. "Sophie," he said weakly.

She held up her hands. "Please just let me go, John," she told him. "Before I say something I will regret."

With that, she spun on her heel and walked away, past the hostess who had directed her to her seat, and out the door.

The cool summer breeze instantly calmed her down, but she didn't stop to give John a chance to change his mind and run after her instead. She put her cold hands to her warm cheeks, willing herself to calm down as she walked. She kept scanning the street to look for somewhere where she could Apparate, but the only alley seemed to be all the way on the other side of the street. She sighed but straightened her coat and resigned herself to a long walk.

She didn't know why she couldn't just _say it_. _No, I don't want to marry you_. _No, I'll never be happy in a marriage with you_. _No, this isn't what I want_.

No, actually, she knew why she couldn't do it. She was a coward. She was too afraid of what would happen if she voiced her own thoughts. She knew exactly what would happen; her mother would never speak to her again. It seemed like an exaggeration, but Thea Kingston was as stubborn as a mule. Everything had to be done her way, or everyone had to pay for it. So while Sophie was the one that agreed to the marriage, her mother was the one that had pulled the strings and made Sophie move like a marionette.

Now that she thought about it, becoming a dragonologist was actually the first time Sophie had really put her foot down and stood up to her mother. But it was mainly because she had her father to back her up. Matthew Kingston was always on Sophie's side, but now that he was gone, she was alone in a corner and wasn't strong enough to hold her own, allowing her mother to crush her. Sophie felt like she had the weight of everyone's futures and happiness on her shoulders, with her own being the least important. And while she knew that that wasn't fair, she didn't know how to make it stop either.

She had just reached the mouth of the alley when someone bumped into her shoulder. She stumbled backwards at the action, and a hand caught hers before she could go flying backwards.

"Sorry!" she heard, and her stomach tightened when she looked up to see Newt standing in front of her, holding his case in one hand and her hand in the other.

"Newt," she breathed, the word slipping past her lips.

"Sophie," he said, much in the same manner.

Sophie looked down at their hands, and her heart stuttered when she realized that Newt had grabbed her left hand, engagement ring and all.

Newt looked down at their hands as well, and quickly dropped hers when he realized. "Sorry," he apologized again. He didn't look Sophie in the eye, but he said, "I'm also sorry for just running out like that, earlier today."

Sophie shook her head. "No, it was my fault," she automatically said, thought she wasn't sure why.

Newt just nodded and moved to walk past her, but her hand moved without thinking. "Newt," she started. She grabbed his hand, which was enough to make him stop and turn around. She wasn't sure what to say after that, but her heart soared when he looked at her. The feeling was enough to help her find words again. She struggled for a few seconds before saying, "Are you hungry?"

He seemed surprised by the question, but said, "I haven't eaten yet."

"Want to grab something?" she wondered.

She fully expected him to say no, and she had to refrain from doing a happy dance when he answered, "Sure. Where?"

A few options ran through Sophie's head, and she smirked when she thought of a place. "How do you feel about speakeasies?"

* * *

 **TBC...**

 **Please review! They motivate me!**

 **Till next time!**

* * *

 **REVIEW RESPONSES:**

 **Crystal-Wolf-Guardain-967:** Thank you!

 **AmericanNidiot:** Me too! I'm trying my best to keep him in character as best as I can! Please let me know if I'm doing so!)

 **.2018:** Thanks so much!

 **BecomingFearless1F:** I really liked it! But I thought that the movie was a little disjointed and weak, but overall I still liked it! The plot twist shook me too, I couldn't believe it! But I really enjoyed it.

 **INeedSleep:** (first of all at your name, same) Hi! I feel bad for Sophie too, she's really stuck in a hard place. And I wasn't planning on it, but because you mentioned it there's chapter I can be able to make from Newt's POV. We'll see, though!

 **Kawaiibirdie24:** Thank you so much! I was hoping that I made his reaction believable!

* * *

 **REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


	8. Date Night: Take Two

**Disclaimer:** I do not own "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" in any way, shape, or form! I only own my OC, "Sophie Millicent Kingston" and the plot of this story!

 **Author's Note:** Sorry for the mini-hiatus, school caught up with me and then I had exams, but here's your next update! Please leave reviews, they motivate me!

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

The place was pretty crowded for a Thursday night. Newt and Sophie chose a spot in the back so that they could hear each other. It was actually a bit awkward; they both ordered their drinks and ended up sitting in silence for a few minutes. Newt stared right down at the table, and Sophie tapped her fingernails against the wooden table.

After a few more seconds of them not talking, Sophie finally spoke up. "If you're not comfortable being here, Newt, we can leave-"

"No," he cut in with a shake of his head. "No," he said a little calmer this time. "We're already here, and the place is..." He looked around them at the giggling women and the guffawing men. "Nice."

Sophie laughed. "It's really not, but it _was_ the first thing that popped into my mind." That was partly true. It was the first place that popped in her mind where she knew she wouldn't be seen by anyone that she knew with another man, thus saving her from having to potentially explain herself to her mother.

They hadn't spoken about Sophie's engagement, or about John, or about anything that had happened earlier in the day since they had left the alley. Sophie was glad for it, too. Being with Newt almost felt like an escape from her real life, and with John meeting Newt, the two worlds were getting uncomfortably close to merging.

"Have you been here often?" he wondered.

She shook her head. "Just a few times with Alexandra. This is actually the place that she brought me after the first time we worked together, and where we found that we had a lot more in common than we thought."

Newt nodded thoughtfully and looked down to his fingers. Sophie leaned back in her seat a bit. "So, how come I don't remember you from school?"

He looked up and stared at her. "What?"

"I mean, we were in school together at the same time," she reminded him. "And I _do_ remember you getting expelled in third year." She said that last part hastily, in case it was a subject that Newt didn't want to talk about, and judging by the suddenly reserved look on his face, Sophie was right. "But you _were_ there the first three years. I was just wondering why I didn't see much of you. I mean, the Ravenclaws _did_ have most of our classes with the Hufflepuffs."

"Well, to be perfectly honest with you, Sophie, I usually prefer being by myself with-" He suddenly cut himself off, biting his lower lip as if he was physically keeping the rest of his sentence inside.

Usually Sophie let it go, but today she wanted to know. "With who?" she pressed.

He opened and closed his mouth a few times before settling on, "Pickett." He looked down at his pocket where the Bowtruckle was currently snoozing. He gently patted his breast pocket. "Pickett and I enjoy being by ourselves together, though I try not to keep him in my pocket too much. The others accuse me of favouritism, but I'm letting him stay close to me just for today, because he got lost."

 _Others_? Sophie thought to herself, and she almost posed it as a question, but she supposed that what Newt had told her before was probably going to be all that she would get out of him today. For a seemingly simple man, Newt Scamander held a lot of secrets. Sophie had no idea if it was a good thing or a bad thing, but she was willing-and eager, if she was being honest with herself-to find out.

"You'd think that we would've interacted more in Care of Magical Creatures," Sophie said instead. "It's clear that we both love magical creatures, even if Kettleburn wasn't the most _cautious_ professor. He was always good to me, though. He's the reason that I ended up at the Sanctuary. He wrote to them and got me an internship. I've been here ever since."

"I still kept mostly to myself in school," Newt revealed. "People don't really like me. I annoy people."

"I'm sure that's not true," Sophie insisted. She almost said, " _I_ like you!" but it didn't seem... appropriate, not after what had happened earlier. Instead she racked her brain for something else to say. "I remember seeing one girl with you at school," Sophie said out loud. "She must've liked you. I know a lot of people didn't like her because of her family. I think her last name was Lestrange, but I cannot remember what her first name was." She tapped her chin. "Leslie? Leandra?"

"Leta," Newt said quietly, the word barely a whisper.

It was as if that single word was enough to cast a large shadow of silence over the two of them. Newt's hands were clamped together, and he stared down at them. He didn't even look up at Sophie.

"Leta," she repeatedly, just as softly. "I remember her more than you, admittedly," she said, trying to lighten the mood a bit. "It was a shame that people judged her based solely on her family. Mind you, I didn't know her very well. Do you still keep in touch?"

"No," he said, the word short and quick. "I don't know what she's up to these days."

"Oh," Sophie said. "I'm... I'm sorry," she added, for lack of a better thing to say.

The mood had dropped significantly since the mention of Leta Lestrange, so Sophie decided to change the subject to hopefully lighter themes. "So, how's your book coming along?" she asked. "I'm excited to read it myself, when it's ready."

Newt's face immediately glowed up, and he sat up straight. "Better than before, with the information that you've been providing me. I'm very lucky to be doing what I'm doing."

"I would hope so," Sophie commented. She rested her elbow against the table and put her chin in her hand. "I think I actually remember the day we learned about Boggarts in Professor Dumbledore's Defence Against the Dark Arts class. Yours was an..."

"Office job," they said at the same time, bringing a smile to their faces. Sophie still didn't remember Newt Scamander all that much when they were in school together, but his Boggart was something that stood out to her because it seemed like such a trivial thing to be afraid of. Many people worked office jobs; what was there to be afraid of?

Of course, now that Sophie was getting to actually _know_ Newt, she could definitely see how an office job wasn't enough for him.

"I think I remember yours as well," Newt piped up, bringing Sophie's attention back to him. "It was a stern looking man, but you wouldn't say who it was, not even to Dumbledore."

Sophie's breath hitched, and Newt could immediately sense the tension in her. "I'm sorry, did I say something to upset you?"

"No," she instantly said. "It's just... it was a bit of an embarrassing fear, especially at thirteen. I didn't want people to think that I was weird for it." She shook her head. "Anyways, the stern looking man was my father."

"You were afraid of your father?" Newt asked, his brows raised to his hairline.

Sophie shook her head again. "No, not in that way," she assured him. "He was a very good man. The Boggart looked stern because...well, my greatest fear was disappointing him. My father was my very favourite person, and I hated doing anything to make him disappointed in me." She sat up a bit. "He's actually the reason why I'm a dragonologist in the first place. My mother's always hated the fact that this was the career I decided to go in; she always wanted me to become a Care of Magical Creatures professor if I insisted on working with magical creatures. But my father knew how much it meant to me. I didn't want to teach and work with all different kinds of magical creatures; I just wanted to work with _dragons_." She sighed wistfully, tracing a line in her hand. "I'll never forget what he said to me. 'Sophie Millicent Kingston, you only get one chance on this earth, and you can't waste it doing something that doesn't make you happy'."

Newt had been silent throughout Sophie's speech, staring at her as if he was hanging on to every single word that came out of her mouth. When she was done, he said, "He sounds like a philosopher, your father."

Sophie giggled. "He'd be very happy to hear you say that, if he was still alive." Her smile faltered a bit. "He died during the Great War."

"Oh," Newt said quietly. "I'm very sorry to hear that."

"Thank you," she said. "Goodness, it feels good to talk about him. I feel like I can't at home. Anything that reminds my mother of my father makes her upset, so my sister Astra insists that we don't talk about him at all." Sophie could feel a tear poke at the corner of her eye. "But I don't think that's fair. It's not fair to his memory that we don't talk about him, because then one day he'll just have disappeared and we won't even have realized it."

Sophie felt a hand on top of hers, and she looked up to see Newt giving her a sympathetic look. "There, there," he said, dipping his head and still not quite looking Sophie in the eye. "It's alright. You are doing the best that you can."

She smiled despite her tears and squeezed Newt's hand. "Thank you," she said sincerely. She swiped at the corner of her eye. So much for trying to lighten the mood. "That's enough of that. I didn't bring you here so I could cry."

"Maybe that's what you needed," Newt suggested. "To cry. There's nothing embarrassing about crying."

"You know what?" Sophie said. "You're right. Thank you, Newt."

The tips of his ears reddened, and he pulled his hand away from Sophie. "It's nothing," he insisted.

"It's not nothing," she told him, a kind smile on her face. "It means something to me. Thank you," she said again.

A hint of a smile appeared on Newt's face, which was enough for Sophie to smile bigger as well. She noticed she smiled a lot around Newt. It made her wonder how much she used to smile before she met him. The only times she really remembered smiling was before her father died, and then afterward she only ever smiled with her sisters or with her dragons.

The smell of food hit her nose, and Sophie looked over her shoulder to see their server placing two bowls of food in front of them.

After the food arrived, there were no more deep conversation, but something inside of Sophie felt very warm. Like someone was filling her with honey that sweetened every part of her body. She wanted to feel like this all the time.

It wasn't until she was Apparating home did she realize that she only ever felt that honey feeling when she was around Newt, and while that was extremely dangerous, she couldn't stop herself from wanting more of that feeling.

And that was probably the most dangerous thing of all.

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 **TBC...**

 **Not very long but I hope you enjoyed it! Even though it's a bit on the shorter side I think it's important for the development of their relationship. Next chapter soon!**

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 **REVIEW RESPONSES:**

 **Phoenixwriters101:** Thank you so much! I hope you enjoyed this update!

 **AmericanNidiot:** Thank you! Keeping Newt in character is something that is very very important to me. I want the romance to be believable and in character for him. Sophie's definitely a lot more open than he is, which is actually one of the things that I think works well for them. It balances them out ha ha. Hope you enjoyed this update!

 **INeedSleep:** For me, I've always thought that John's more in love with the idea of being in love and having a wife. It hadn't been very long since the war ended when he met Sophie, so I think the war was really something that kick started this carpe diem like thinking that he might not be around forever, and because their mothers are friends, it seemed like the fastest and most convenient way to get married and have a family. He's definitely someone who lives in his own world, and as we'll see, this won't work for Sophie.

 **Crystal-Wolf-Guardian-967:** Here's an update! Hope you enjoyed!

 **Smuzzie:** DUDE ME TOO.

 **.2018:** ME TOO.

 **Kawaiibirdie24:** Thank you!

 **Delightfully Tacky:** First of all, thank you for the review! They do really mean so much to me and lets me know that there are people who are appreciating what I'm writing and putting out in the world. And yes to the Titanic reference! It's not something that I'd thought of before but now that I AM thinking about it Cal was probably an influence on me ha ha. I am also trying to make him seem like a man of his time because this story DOES take place in the 1920s, and while Sophie seems a bit ahead of her time, that doesn't mean everyone else around her isn't, which is definitely something that is dragging her down and part of why she's unhappy in her home life. The short chapters are actually a combined result of not enough time to write and because I'm trying to stretch out the story so that it doesn't end too soon. And it's funny that you mention wanting more dragons because after this chapter it's all dragons all the time haha. Thank you SO much for the review and I hope you liked this chapter!

 **Guest:** Thank you so much! Here's an update!

 **WriteToEscapeReality1309:** Thank you so much for your kind words! You know I always love ya :) But yeah, life really sucks for Sophie. I'm really trying to show how the lives of women were like at the time the story takes place (she's basically become the man of the family because her mother is still the matriarch and they no longer have a patriarch and because she's the eldest the responsibility has fallen to her) which again, really sucks but it's all a part of her character arc and trying to find out who she is and what she wants and what she's willing to give for it. She's definitely been one of my favourite characters to write because of it. I hope you liked this chapter!

 **FaithfulReader92:** Thank you! Hope you liked this update!

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 **REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


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